Museums
We love working with our partner Museums
... and, from their feedback, they enjoy working with us!
Each Museum stay is tailored to the needs of the Museum, its own artefacts and often its local schools, community and community groups with whom it has an existing or developing relationship. Get in touch now to discuss a possible visit: northerndonks@gmail.com
It’s useful to know . . . since Spring 2024 The Richmond Purple Poppies Tour has gone from York Army Museum to The Cumbrian Museum of Military Life, The Cheshire Military Museum, The Green Howards' Museum, The REME Museum, The Museum of The Queen's Royal Hussars, The Rifles Berkshire and Wiltshire Museum, paying tribute not only to the 16 million animals that participated in World War I but to those that have participated in wars in more recent times too. In 2027 it will visit The Royal Welsh Regimental Museum in Brecon and we will keep you posted as to where it goes next.
A wonderful cascade of purple crocheted poppies (seen above during their tenure at The Museum of The Queen’s Royal Hussars, Warwick), they provide the central piece to a display of interesting artefacts and anecdotes. A theme of the display is 'commemoration through crafting', to which end we have all manner of representations of animals in war through glass crafting, art, felted work, knitted work, collage and much more. In 2025 we introduced a stunning horse’s head from Burnham Grammar School in Slough, and in 2026 an incredible Quilt/Wall Hanging created by makers young and old, with individual tributes stitched, appliquéd, painted and so on.
The Tour is usually accompanied by one or two special days (that can be tied into an official launch/reception) with real donkeys present! The Donkey Breed Society has nine regions across the UK and many of our members have donkeys that are only too happy to meet the public! Needless to say, we have correct insurance and undertake risk assessments and so on. We are more than happy to reach out with you to schools and community groups, U3a and similar, either supporting workshops in person, where possible, or providing suggested activities that can be worked on and brought to the Museum for display; providing super community engagement opportunities. An additional strand to our work and one that will become more prominent, is recognising the work of blacksmiths and farriers, commissioned and non-commissioned in WWI and WWII.
And there are contributions from children that attended workshops at the Royal Three Counties Show at Malvern in 2026 too.
