Axminster Heritage Centre held its AGM on November 23, and announced some new objects to the museum including a Thomas Whitty rug and some metal detector finds.

After the reports and votes, including one to consider the changing of status from a charity to a charitable incorporated organisation, the members were invited to go into the museum to see some new items recently added to their collection.

Three of the items had come from metal detectorists, two of which had entered the collection through the Portable Antiquity Scheme. The three items are a gold Anglo Saxon brooch, a silver thimble from the 1600s and a silver thimble from the 1700s. You might think that gold and silver items would be the prize new items but that honour falls to a new Thomas Whitty Rug.

The rug was donated in 2022 and has undergone extensive conservation work to prepare it for display. The reason the rug is important is that it tells a completely different story of the Georgian Axminster carpet factory. You may think that Georgian Axminster carpets made by the Whitty family only adorned the large homes of the upper classes, including those of the royal family. This rug tells us about products that they made for the growing middle classes and this one would have gone into a house in Axminster. The story then develops into its next owner, local farrier Frederick Bull and his wife Lydia, who received the rug in lieu of a debt in the 1930s. As the family state, they were always poor and this became Lydia’s prized possession and her love for it is shown by the rustic repairs she made on it so it could remain in use. It had spent many decades in a loft following Lydia’s death so it is great that it is on display. Lydia’s grandchildren, Barry Ebdon (the donor) and his cousin Marina Tressider came to see the rugs unveiling on display.

Why not come and see these items for yourself. The centre is in its winter opening times now so are open Tuesday and Thursday 10-4, and Saturday 10-1.