Friday 31 March 2017

Getting into History at York Castle Museum

History has never been a strong point of mine. I always got on well with my history teacher but ever since I stated that the Battle of Hastings was in 1166, he advised me not to take it at GCSE level.

Despite this, I have always had an interest in museums. I've been several times to the museums in Lincoln and will try and explore the museums when I am in a new place. Me and my mum were lucky enough to get invited along to York Castle Museum while we were in York and it is honestly worth a visit. I was really surprised at how interactive the museum was and how much time you can spend there!

 
 
 

 I really appreciated how detailed some of the displays were, the museum had carefully thought of every element from the era that they were trying to convey and they had been done to an exceptionally high standard.








 
 
 
At the time of our visit there was also an exhibition called 'Shaping the body', I found this a really powerful exhibition and seeing the way that our style and our lives had changed to keep up with the ever-changing trends was really interesting. There were also aspects where people were invited to talk about their own bodies and how they saw themselves, some people talked about how they felt confident with their body whilst others talked about some of the issues that they'd faced. As I dealt with a  curvature of the spine at a young age and faced a lot of body confidence issues because of this, this sent a really powerful message to me that we should never be ashamed and always be proud of our bodies.
 










 
 
 
Another aspect of the museum I enjoyed was when we went into the outside world and explored all the shops, although we was indoors, the cobbles and the tall ceiling made it feel as though we were outside and even in that time period.
 
 









 
 
 
 
I am personally a big fan of vintage signs and managed to see a lot of these throughout the museum and perhaps got a little bit addicted to taking photos!
 
 






 
We then headed through to the prison side of the museum which was a very interactive approach and stories of inmates were projected onto the walls of the cells which I thought added a very realistic element and made the exhibition feel very real.
 





 
It made me realise how different our prisons are today and how uncomfortable that bed must have been!
 
 
We then finally headed through to the eccentric 60s exhibition which was filled with vibrant colours and activity, it was one of my favourite exhibitions in the museum (It had a pink shop!) and was a great way to end a lovely day out.
 



 
 
 
 
Thank you again to York Castle Museum for a great day out! Starting tomorrow the museum has a brand new scrumptious exhibition called Chocolate: York's Sweet Past which you can read more about here.
 
To find out more about the museum, visit their website or follow them on social media using Facebook or Twitter.
 
 
J x



 

No comments:

Post a Comment