Our oldest treasure

The oldest items in the Collection are a pair of 17th century gauntlets made of fine leather and embroidered with silk, silver and gold thread. They feature on page 3 of the book of the Collection (available to purchase online). However, for some time, they have been too delicate to put on display.

On the advice of our curator, Julia Fox, the trustees have sought funds for their restoration, and we are extremely grateful that the Dorothy Bullard Trust, which specialises in supporting significant costume restoration projects, has generously given us a grant of two-thirds of the estimated cost.

This has enabled us to invite Morwena Stephens, a highly qualified and experienced restorer based at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter, to carry out the work. The gauntlets are currently with her, and we hope to receive them back during the summer and to be be able to show them in our 2024 exhibition.

Dr. Kate Strasdin becomes a trustee of the Devonshire Collection of Period Costume

Dr. Kate Strasdin has been for some years the honorary deputy curator at the Totnes Fashion and Textile Museum. We are delighted that she has recently agreed to join the board of Trustees of the Collection.

Dr. Strasdin is a senior lecturer in Cultural Studies at Falmouth University where she has taught since 2009. The research from her PhD, which she completed in 2013, was published as a book in October 2017, titled Inside the Royal Wardrobe: A Dress History of Queen Alexandra. Her second book, The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes: Secrets from a Victorian Woman’s Wardrobe, will be published in February 2023.

Dr. Strasdin is also a freelance consultant for dress and textile exhibitions, including acting as the historical consultant for the exhibition Royal Women at the Fashion Museum, Bath in 2018, named as one of Vogue’s top 12 exhibitions of the year. She has appeared as a costume historian on The Great British Sewing Bee and in a TV profile of Queen Alexandra.

Bogan House restoration

The Grade I listing of Bogan House is based on evidence of an earlier house on the site in the 14th or 15th century. You can find out more about the history of the house here. The DW Mitchell Trust has owned the building for more than forty years and the Collection has leased space for exhibitions and storage since 1987.

Some years ago, the Mitchell Trust embarked on an ambitious programme of conservation and restoration. The plan was in two phases, to be carried out mainly in the winter to avoid interference with the Fashion and Textiles Museum. The plan proceeded in 2016 and 2017 when the rear of the building was reroofed, but the work uncovered a number of problems, as might be expected in a building of this age, and this further work had to be undertaken as phase 1.5. All this restoration work on a Grade I listed building had to be approved by Historic England before it could receive listed building consent  from South Hams District Council, and obtaining this permission took nearly two years.

Phase 2 is the urgent replacement of the slating and windows on the front of the building. The planned start in October 2022 had to be deferred until January 2023, but at the end of November the Mitchell Trust was informed that scaffolding could not be erected on the road in front of the building in January because of temporary traffic rules during the laying of a new gas main. It is now hoped to start the work in April 2023.

We have worked closely with the Mitchell Trust and they have been generous to the Collection in striving to meet our needs. The trustees of the Collection have had to take the view that it is impractical to hold an exhibition in 2023 because of the safety implications for our volunteers and visitors, the access for our curatorial team to the set up an exhibition, and the need to protect the Collection from the building work.

While completing phase 2 of the work, the Mitchell Trust will also take measures to bring the building up to modern health and safety standards.

We look forward to a splendid setting for the 2024 exhibition and can only keep our fingers crossed that no more unexpected surprises will be discovered during phase 2.