The Exchange has a new display space in the Atrium on the lower ground floor. If you’re coming for a show, looking for somewhere quiet to enjoy an interval drink, or just passing though, The Exchange and the Sturminster Newton Heritage Trust have collaborated to bring some of the Museum’s collection to a wider public.
Their opening display is of tinware made by Fred Cowley in the very early 20th Century, before his family business developed into the plumbing and heating partnership, still trading in the town 125 years later. Alongside this is a screen showing film from and about Sturminster Mill: it will be running whenever The Exchange is open.
Barnes For All
The second space is managed by The Exchange and will show a mixture of local history and what is going on in Sturminster today – an opportunity for local groups to tell a wider public what they do and why. At the moment, and for a few weeks more, there is a display about William Barnes, the Dorset Poet, who started his distinguished life in Bagber, just outside Sturminster Newton.
This has been put in place by the William Barnes Society timed perfectly for the popular ‘Tea with William Barnes’, which took place on 23rd February.
This event, brought into being by Artsreach, is an annual celebration of Dorset culture, proudly hosted by The Exchange, and it sells out well in advance every year. It is also live-streamed across the British Isles and over the Atlantic.
The event includes historic folksongs and tunes collected from the whole county and from the Hardy family songbook, new settings of Barnes’ poetry, traditional work by contemporary musicians and dialect poetry readings.
The culture of Dorset is still in good shape, with much credit for that due to William Barnes, whose poetry and learned works have preserved the dialect he grew up with.
During the 1850s Barnes was instrumental in the setting up of the Dorset County Museum. Now the Barnes For All campaign is aiming to raise £35,000 to fully catalogue and digitise the Barnes archive and make it available to future generations. Do come and see some reminders of this distinguished local scholar and the other items on display now and in the future – and look out for the celebration of Dorset culture in Sturminster Newton, coming in 2026.
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