Our AGM was held in Rushden Hall on Thursday 4 April 2019. The committee were re-elected, and our retiring president, Mr. Clive Wood, was presented with a 1000 piece jig-saw made from the picture which is on the front of his book “Rushden Hall Northamptonshire.”
Our new president, Mr. Will Osborne, of Osborne’s Sports and Toys, was welcomed by our chairman on behalf of us all. Will has been involved with the museum for several years, as was his late father, Jim, providing us with an amazing collection of toys and games to fit in with our exhibitions, whatever the subject.
After a short break for tea and biscuits, the speaker for the evening was Mr. Jeremy Viewing . It was a very interesting and entertaining talk about how Cleopatra’s Needle was brought to London from Alexandria in 1877. Mr. Viewing also told us about the time capsule concealed in the obelisk.
When the obelisk was erected in 1878 a time capsule was concealed in the front part of the pedestal containing: a set of 12 photographs of the best-looking English women of the day, a box of hairpins, a box of cigars, several tobacco pipes, a set of imperial weights, a baby’s bottle, some children’s toys, a shilling razor, a hydraulic jack and some samples of the cable used in the erection, a 3 foot bronze model of the monument, a complete set of contemporary British coins, a rupee, a portrait of Queen Victoria, a written history of the transport of the monument, plans on vellum, a translation of the inscriptions, copies of the Bible in several languages, a copy of John 3:16 in 215 languages, a copy of Whitaker’s Almanack, a Bradshaw Railway Guide, a map of London and copies of 10 daily newspapers.
Mr. Clive Wood and Mr. Will Osborne