Steyning Museum - New Exhibitions

Growing Up:
A new exhibition at Steyning Museum focuses on the fun we had growing up. Toys and games are a big feature and many of those on display are still around - but how they have changed. The older brother of today’s tiny, shiny scooters is there, but twice the size, half the speed, and ten times the effort to push. Or compare the driving experience of an X-Box or PlayStation with the stately grandeur of 60 years ago - a wonderfully detailed, hand-made toy truck, made of wood!

Families will find interest across the generations, seniors reliving their salad days with bicycle or pram while youngsters find out how they used to play before games went electronic.

Skipping and bouncing balls were simple entertainment, but what about the songs sung to keep time - funny ha-ha and funny peculiar. Who remembers “Plainsee, Clapsee, Roll the wheel to Patsee”, or “You were caught kissing (So-and-So)...How many kisses did you give him”?

When did children become adults is a question that the exhibition shows had different answers at different times. Is a child grown up at 12, or should adulthood begin at 21?

There are also many photographs of children at play showing how growing up has changed from the drudgery of the Victorian copybook exercises to the freedom of a modern playgroup. There is much more awaiting discovery at Steyning Museum.

Horse Power:
For most of our history horse power was relied on for transport, travel and work on the farm. A new exhibition at Steyning Museum explores this story.

Heavy horses are familiar to most of us and can often be seen at fairs or on TV, but Sussex was also famous for its working teams of oxen and bullocks. They were not as fast as horses and were not used for travel, but for pulling ploughs and heavy wagons their solid bulk and low centre of gravity meant their pulling power was tremendous.

Special tack was needed to fit the ox or bullock - essentially the same equipment used with horses but designed to suit the different animal. On display are many examples of the kind of fittings used for both horse and ox power.

Photographs show how teams could work in pairs or in line of three for heavy jobs, an experienced man leading the team while a lad wielded the goad, a long, whippy stem some 15 feet long to reach the forward animal.

Shoes for horses and oxen vary from a tiny 2 1/2 inches up to 10 inches across, and the display includes a puzzle item known as a ‘stranger’ to be picked out from the dozen on show.

Another curiosity is a heavy leather boot worn by horses to prevent damage to a delicate lawn when the mowing machine is used. And just to show that there is no problem that has not been seen before there is a muzzle or muffler to stop horses getting obese from overeating when out to grass.

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