HOW DID THIS LITTLE MUSEUM COME ABOUT?

After some 20+ years of existance, it belatedly occurs that many newer residents to the Sutton and Wawne areas would have no idea of this building's past history or use.

It was the village school, a Church of England School, closely connected to St James’ Church, until it closed in 1976, and they moved down to their ‘new’ site on Dorchester Rd, to which many of your own children would now attend. It had been a totally church-run school from opening in 1849, until 1948, when the Hull Education Authority took it over at the time most former church schools came under their jurisdiction.

Having closed, the building stood unused for the next 20 or so years, other than serving as a storeroom for the church.  A local lady, Merrill Rhodes and herself a former history teacher, had been appointed as a church schools liason officer, for those many Hull schools that still kept close church links.  Merrill was offered the small end room, our first museum room, as an office, a local base, for her work. She already had a great interest in family history research herself, and along with local helpers and the churchwardens and congregation, they formed into a basic 'Family History Club'.

In a very short space of time, they were given a great number of old photos of the village, and photos of older residents and families that had long since passed. They all developed an interest in the historic houses, local farms and history of the village in it’s widest sense.  Along with the photos came artefacts, small ones a first, domestic kitchen implements, fireside furniture, crockery, and then medals and military history of residents that had served. And then costumes and workwear. Those early volunteers simply gathered together both villages histories, to be preserved and available to all folk.

It all grew without really trying, and the point came when Merrill retired and was able to devote all her time to the impromptu club she had founded.  She was helped greatly in this work by her husband, Peter, especially with copying and printing the many photos that were donated.  I don’t know what came first, the formation of the first of our many photo albums, or Merrill’s realisation she would like to write a book about both villages.

Anyone getting even a little deep into Sutton’s history will soon discover it is not the oldest village around, not by a long way.  As a parish, it had only existed since 1349, when the present St James Church was started to be built, and then consecrated that year. Until then, this little hill was part of St Peter’s parish at Wawne. That church had been started in 1170, getting on for some 200 years before Sutton’s, and until recent years still regarded as the ‘senior church’. Up to 1349, Sutton had been a mere chapelry. There had been a small chapel on the site, but not fully consecrated. So local families went to Wawne for full services, Christmas, Easter, to be married, baptised, or buried.  Yes, Sutton folk had to take their dead down Wawne Road, along that long lane, across the drain and up to Wawne village for burial. 

Merrill’s acclaimed book tied all this together, along with deep research about all the local farms and businesses.  Blacksmiths, butchers, seed merchants, shops, public houses, all were researched in great detail, and along with it’s publication in 1998, this family history society grew ever bigger and more popular.  It is available online now, by the way, having long since gone 'out-of-print' as a book.

The book very much included and involved Wawne folk, for many residents donated their photos and stories, and that collection grew to the five full Wawne albums we have now. The closeness of the two villages, the family connections and friendliness only seems to have evaporated now because of the huge housing estate that has grown up and now geographically and physically separates the two. Wawne School was always hugely involved too from the beginning. The two villages seem very separate now, but historically, this was not always so.

They decided to open to the public, one day a week, and recruited their first rotas of ‘Volunteers’ around 2000 time, the millennium. Friday was the decided day, partly because at that time it suited everyone then involved, and for many, most of who were retired anyway, weekends were already spoken for. In time, they opened on  occasional Saturdays through the summer, and for special events in village life like May Day and Remembrance Weekend, and recently, Heritage Weekends.

It was the vicar at the time, Reverend Tony Rablen and his churchwardens, the caretaker and groundsfolk, that made all this possible.  The fact that the museum is in there at all is entirely in the gift of the church, their support and help in keeping the roof on at one extreme of assistance, to cutting the grass and painting woodwork at the other. Merrill and Peter just built and grew their interest on the help and assistance they all gave, and still do to this day.

As the internet grew, a volunteer created a web page attached to his own family pages, and we gained more and more support.  The time came when it was realised that we were more than we thought we were, we really had become a museum in fact, all in that little end room at first. More and more artefacts, costumes and display items were donated, so many  that it sort of spilled out into the main hall, and what we now call our tearoom. It was when we decided to pay for our own website and have a proper email address, and needing a shorter name, that we decided to call ourselves a museum.

Merrill and Peter used the main hall to put on modern versions of ‘lantern slide shows’, albeit with a modern slide projector onto a large pull down screen. She did talks and presentations, as did others that were invited, about Sutton and the wider area and to display the increasing number of photos they were amassing in their growing collection. More and more albums were created, and so it just grew and grew into the tremendous collection, some 30 or so albums all told, that we have today.

That’s where were are now, how we have grown into something bigger than most of residents around here know about. Unless folks have reason to drive through Sutton and note the old school set well back from the road, many don’t even know we’re here, about this website or what we do.

When we get to talking to newer local folks ourselves, as volunteers to our own neighbours and friends, we often find if we mention the Sutton & Wawne Museum, many have never heard of us. For those of you that have found this short history useful, we hope to have put that right, and you will spread the word.  Right now, we need all the support we can get.

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