At the beginning of May, the Curator (Dorothy) and a valued volunteer (Nina Kemp) were working through our backlog of cataloguing which is needed to allow the Museum to know which items we hold at Thorney Museum which can help us to show our local history. We found a photo of a group of people down on the North Bank. From the clothes and the Morris Minor we guessed early 1960s. The photograph was given to the Museum in 1990 by Mr Ulyett, a former teacher at the Duke of Bedford School. It...

Please forgive us bringing your attention back to the poster (on this blog at the end of last year) advertising the first skating race according to new national rules which was held in 1879 on the Thorney River. This is the conserved and restored poster, including replaced portions, held by Thorney Museum. Speed skating is known back in the Middle Ages in the north of Europe and Scandinavia in particular. Skates made of bone were used first. It seems a Scotsman deigned a skate with an iron...

I think it is a while since we have shown this sketch, created by a former resident of Thorney, Justin Ayton. The village of Thorney formed around a medieval Abbey which had been founded in AD662. That monastery was destroyed by the Vikings, but refounded around 970. A large stone church, built of stone from Barnack, was built and extended. The side view below shows it around 1320, at its largest. side view of the Abbey church, cut through the central tower In this illustration, the full...