The sixth and final episode of the fifth series of ‘Grundy’s Wonders’ produced by Tyne Tees Television and written and presented by architectural historian and broadcaster John Grundy. In this week’s edition John visits a selection of the regions museum to explore how they developed in the Northeast and North Yorkshire and what they bring to society today. Siting beside a display of a standard diving dress inside the Discovery Museum at Newcastle, presenter John Grundy explains that in this...

The sixth and final episode of the fifth series of ‘Grundy’s Wonders’ produced by Tyne Tees Television and written and presented by architectural historian and broadcaster John Grundy. In this week’s edition John visits a selection of the regions museum to explore how they developed in the Northeast and North Yorkshire and what they bring to society today. Siting beside a display of a standard diving dress inside the Discovery Museum at Newcastle, presenter John Grundy explains that in this programme he will be plumbing new depths, delving deep into the world of museums. An animation of a book with its pages turning revealing different buildings and architectural styles ending on presenter John Grundy holding the programmes title card. Title: Grundy’s Wonders A montage of some of the museums and museum displays that will feature in this programme changes to John resting against the front-wall of his friend Mary’s house. She has kindly allowed John to show his viewers part of her ‘boody’ collection which consists of various bits and pieces of little things, often potter, collected from waste ground which are being stored inside a small box. After talking about its value and importance John appears outside his Gosforth in Newcastle home offering to show the viewer his array of rocks which he has known and loved. In the backyard he holds up several examples including a piece of slag from Middlesbrough, an ammonite from the beach at Whitby and a piece of crystal iron salt from Death Valley in California. John asks the question, but what does this have to do with museums? He explains there are two points, the first is that both his and Mary’s collections are of things they happen to love, the second is that it is all ‘rubbish’ they both just like to have. As John walks around the ornamental pond inside Leazes Park in Newcastle past people and families enjoying the nice weather he provides details on a recent National Lottery Heritage Fund restoration project relating to the pond which involved it being drained revealing hundreds of items sitting at the bottom. Inside the Museum of Antiquities at Newcastle University John walks over to a table containing some of the items that were uncovered including coins, glass jars and a former Air-Raid Warden (ARP) helmet. John confesses it is all rubbish, but revealing rubbish about how the park was used and the things that happened there. He holds up one of hundreds of small glass jars that were uncovered and explains they use to hold candles when the park was lit at night during the Edwardian period. Looking around at the other displays in the museum John admires its collections of revealing rubbish from across various periods of time. Standing beside a display of stuffed birds inside the Hancock Museum also at Newcastle, John talks about visiting the Tullie House Museum in Carlisle as a child and enjoying similar displays. As he walks around the museum, he explains that the Hancock is dedicated to the study of natural history and spreads beyond displays of dead animals to cases of living ones. John walks along a line of display cases containing a mixture of live insect, spider and lizards with the sequence ending on him sitting astride a child’s dinosaur ride. Sitting in an office at the Hancock and with a stuffed Capercaillie bird sitting in front of him, John tells the story of Marmaduke Tunstall of Wycliffe Hall in Teesdale. Marmaduke was an 18th century collector, the Capercaillie being from his collection, and like many others of that period he decided to open up private museum to display his collection A montage of the museum room at Newby Hall near Ripon in North Yorkshire designed by the great Robert Adam and which featured in a previous edition of ‘Grundy’s Wonder’. Returning to John he continues to talk about Marmaduke’s collection and a visit to Wycliffe by the great wood engraver Thomas Bewick in 1791 to draw the then late Marmaduke’s birds which would be used to illustrate one of the most important natural history books ever printed the ‘History of British Birds.’ The book led to the formation of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham and Newcastle and whose first museum opened in Newcastle in 1829. Now the library of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle-upon-Tyne on Westgate Road in the city it was the first museum in England to admit the public free of charge and the first to experiment with gas lighting so that galleries could be opened in the evening. As John talks a montage of people and staff using the library and of the various busts including that of Thomas Bewick. Returning to John still wondering around the galleries at the Hancock Museum he explains this is where the museum moved in 1884 and is named in honour of two native naturalist brothers Albany and John Hancock. On the wall of the museum a memorial plaque to the two men. Taking the programme into a commercial break John stands on the steps outside and sums up the programme so far, a little private collection that has turned into a major public museum. Title: Grundy’s Wonders End of Part One Part Two A montage inside the Rotunda Museum in Scarborough, North Yorkshire believed to be the oldest surviving purpose-built public museum in then Northeast and, according to John, started in a similar way to the Hancock Museum in Newcastle as a private collection of rocks and ammonites that were acquired by the Scarborough Philosophical Society. As he looks around its interior John provides details on the gorgeous Georgian domed room with its beautiful original display cases. Taking a spiral staircase outside views of the museum in the rain with John explain that the wings either side of the rotunda were added a few years later. Over a montage of the Sunderland Museum and Winter Garden on Borough Road in the city, John provides details on the current building originally opened in 1877 and recently modernised with the addition of the winter garden. However, this wasn’t the first museum in the city, this opened in 1845 the same year Parliament passed the Museums Act allowing local corporation to raise rates to build their own museums making Sunderland the first corporation to have a civic museum outside of London. Explaining that Sunderland Museum is now under the umbrella of Tyne and Wear Museum Service a road sign for the ‘Discovery Museum’ in Newcastle. Over views of its exterior John explains that this museum differs from others in this programme as it wasn’t originally built as a museum rather the warehouse and headquarters of the Co-operative Wholesale Society built in 1899. John is astonished by the building’s confidence containing a fantastic mix of sandstone, bright red brick and terracotta. Standing outside the museum entrance he explains the reason for its opulence and why it contains some of his favourite rooms anywhere in the Northeast. Walking along the corridor of what was once the company directors’ offices remodelled in the 1930s he quickly slips into gentlemen’s lavatories at the end of the corridor. Over a montage of the toilet John explains in voiceover about why it is art-deco at its finest. Up in the Great Hall John explains that while he has visited the museum many times over the years, he didn’t know this room existed. Explaining it was originally the Directors Ballroom he goes into details about why he likes it over a montage of its features described by John as a mixture of post Edwardian interior design with industrial style steel arches. Standing on the stairway outside the Great Hall John explains that it has only recently been re-opened as part of a £13 million Heritage Lottery Fund project which has completely restyled the museum. As he heads downs stairs he asks, what have they gotten for the money? Now standing in the Central Hall next to the Turbinia, the first steam turbine-powered steamship built by Charles Algernon Parsons, John admires this great museums architecture of the highest-order in a beautiful hi-tech contemporary space that fits so well into the old industrial building with galleries on upper levels like ships decks. A montage of visitors enjoying Central Hall and popping in and out of the various galleries. A second montage this time of the interior décor and of the many marvellous objects beautifully displayed around the museum. Standing back outside again John ask was it worth £13 million? He believes so not just because of the museum but also because of the area surrounding it which is also being rejuvenation in part thanks to having a museum this good nearby. Cultural stuff this good, John believes, changes the way we think about a place and all museums are a vital part of our local identity. John awards the Discovery Museum this weeks ‘Grundy’s Wonder’. An animation of a fanfare of trumpets over the following title. Title: Grundy’s Wonders Standing on Ravensworth Terrace in the 1900 Town at Beamish The Living Museum of the North as a tram passes in the background, John explains that it is unfair to single out one museum when there are so many in the Northeast he admires. A list of said museum appears down the side of the screen all of which according to John deserve the highest of praise. Over the closing credits a montage of some of the locations featured in this programme. Credit: Written and Presented by John Grundy Camera Dave Dixon, Simon Elphinstone, Simon Foggin Sound Paul Graham, Andrew Bennett Lighting Gordon Porteous, John Mason, John Haynes Production Manager Christine Stewart-Tilling Production Assistants Karen Sharp Graphics Dave Richardson, Keith Dover Title Music & Dubbing John Cook Editor Mark Duncan Executive Producer Jane Bolesworth Series Producer Steve Robins Title: © ITV 2004 End title: ITV Tyne Tees. An ITV Production