Objects from the Collection

This pub sign celebrates the excellence of dyers in the local textile industry. The caption 'Tho' we stand here in Wind and Rain / True Blue will never Stain' refers to the indigo-dyed cloth (sometimes called 'Uley Blue') which was produced in the area alongside Stroud scarlet.

STGCM 2004

The lawnmower was invented in Stroud by Edward Beard Budding in 1830. Budding used technology he had seen in a local cloth mill to design the world's first mechanical lawnmower, revolutionising grass-cutting which had previously been done by hand using scythes. The collection includes two early lawnmowers as well as Budding's original patent drawings.

STGCM LH.9

A mammoth tusk found at Cainscross during excavations for the Great Western Railway in 1844. Our Cotswold mammoth must be tens of thousands of years old, its remains deposited by a glacier in the last Ice Age.

STGCM 1950.126/2

Stroud was one of the last towns in the country to adopt Greenwich Mean Time. Until 1858 the people of Stroud set their clocks according to the sun, which was 9 minutes behind GMT or ‘railway time’ as it was also known. Clockmaker Robert Bragg changed all this by mounting this clock outside his shop on the High Street and setting it to railway time – finally bringing Stroud in line with the modern world.

STGCM 2011.14

A selection of Treasure finds in the collection, including an Anglo-Saxon pendant from Ham & Stone which probably adorned the neck of a high status woman in the 7th century.

STGCM 2018.4

Until 1895 this weathercock sat atop the steeple of St Mary's Church, Painswick - presiding over one of the most historic churchyards in Gloucestershire. That didn't stop Mr Arthur Meeze from using it as target practice from the window of his house nearby. When confronted by the church warden, the culprit quickly offered to pay for a replacement. Look closely and you can still see the bullet holes.

STGCM 1964.160

A wallet of 19th century cloth samples dyed in the red hue for which Stroud was famous. Stroud scarlet's success is bound up with the history of British colonialism, the cloth having been used for the uniforms of British soldiers as well as being sought after by Indigenous Americans, with devastating consequences for communities exposed to European diseases to which they had no immunity.

STGCM CM.4306

Joan Mary West (1883-1974) moved to Selsley at the age of 23. Having avoided a ‘coming out’ party to launch her into society, she instead devoted herself to art. Her many paintings and sketches of the Cotswold landscape are now in the Museum’s collection. This patchwork quilt begun by Joan Mary and completed by her mother is unusual in that it is embroidered with a key to all the fabrics used, providing a unique snapshot of the women’s family history.

STGCM 2023.23/1

Motorcycle and sidecar built by Baughan Motors of Lower Street, Stroud in 1929. The motorcycle won so many trials that in 1935 Baughan boasted that it was 'barred from a number of important events on the grounds that it was not possible for other machines to win.' Bill Hayward and Marjorie Grant Heelas won the 1946 Cotswold Cup on this machine.

On loan from the British Motorcycle Charitable Trust. STGCM 2010.54.

Part of a stegosaur's pelvis, found at New Park Quarry, Stow-on-the-Wold in the 1930s. It was previously thought to be an armour plate from a stegosaurus, but has recently been identified as a pelvic bone from an ancestor who lived millions of years earlier. STGCM 1944.41

This machine was used at Stroud's famous Halas & Batchelor animation studio: the biggest and most influential animation company in Britain in the mid 20th century. The Acmiola was found in the attic of Harold Whitaker, an acclaimed animator who worked on Halas and Batchelor's groundbreaking film of Animal Farm in 1954, the first full-length animation feature for adults.

STGCM 2014.39

This game of nine men’s morris was inscribed on a tile from King’s Stanley moated manor around 1330. It was probably done by workmen during a break, then discarded. Nine men’s morris was brought to Britain at the time of the Norman Conquest and reached the height of its popularity in the 14th century, with examples found carved into cathedrals and other medieval sites across Europe.

STGCM 1970.132