Museum Review No.5

High House Museum, Tumby Moorside

Report by Lee and Beth Slaven

My attention was drawn by a small box advertisement in the local press, which gave details of High House museum, which I must confess I had never heard of, but felt, might well deserve a visit, particularly as August Bank Holiday Monday, was apparently to be the last opening date of their display for 2008. Situated in the hamlet of Tumby Moorside, and sign-posted from the Total Garage in Coningsby, the museum reflects the first fifty years of the Twentieth Century, and though not immediately impressive from the outside, being situated in the grounds of a local bed and breakfast business, the museum, for such a small concern, is exceptional to say the least. Displays are set up in a series of old Nissen huts which are cleverly linked, and begin with items associated with the Suffragette movement. Further scenarios are all cleverly contrived with an excellent collection of ephemera, depicting life in a First World War trench, complete with rat! The sound of gunfire, explosions and sympathetic lighting add to the atmosphere, and displays of a Second World War shop, life in the home and bomb site, with sirens sounding and search light overhead do not disappoint. This small museum has managed to reproduce a slice of our history to an exceedingly professional standard, and provides an enjoyable taste of "past times". Well worth a visit !