Lighting up Wakefield: guide to The Timekeepers by Illuminos

This year's Light Up Wakefield (part of Our Year - Wakefield District 2024) invites you to see spectacular digital installations and experience the city in a whole new light!

One of the 2024 installations is The Timekeepers by Illuminos, which will be projected onto County Hall. 

It is a projection mapping piece based on the 300-year old story of Wakefield-born genius John Harrison. Harrison set his mind to the great mystery of the age – the perfect measurement of time and space. 

The Timekeepers celebrates the great variety of heritage, culture and arts that can be discovered across the Wakefield district.

The installation flies through time and tells stories, large and small from the Wakefield district. 

We're extremely excited, as our collections play a big part in telling the story! It sees some of our tiniest objects made gigantic on the beautiful facade of County Hall.

So what objects can you expect to see in The Timekeepers? Here's a guide to some of the highlights - some you might be familiar with, and others you might not!

The Waterton Clock, 1670s

This is a gorgeous lantern clock which was owned by the Waterton family for generations. 

Charles Waterton (1782 - 1865) of Walton Hall thought that the clock was once owned by Sir Thomas More (1478 - 1535). Waterton believed he was a descendant of More. 

More was Lord High Chancellor to Henry VIII - until he had him executed!

However, the clock was actually made over 100 years after the death of More. Nevertheless, it is a beautiful piece and lends itself brilliantly to The Timekeepers! It's also the oldest clock in our collection.

The 'Castleford Pig', around 1910

The 'Castleford Pig' is literally a window through time! 

Inside this tiny carving of a pig is a looking glass. When you hold the object up to the light, you can see six pictures of Castleford from the early 1900s. 

It's an example of a Stanhope picture viewer, and novelty versions were very collectable. They came in many shapes and sizes, and could feature lots of pictures.

The Timekeepers is about incredible, huge visuals projected onto one of Wakefield's most spectacular buildings. 

So it's absolutely delighted us that our tiny pig, which is only about the size of a £1 coin, is going to be the size of County Hall! 

Glassware made by Bagley and Co Ltd in Knottingley, 1930s

Although originally started as a bottle factory, Bagley's also made decorative glass. It became especially known for its vibrantly coloured glass developed in the 1930s.

However, there's a hazardous reason behind some of these brilliant colours - some were created using uranium, a radioactive element!

Coloured glass production ended in the 1940s when uranium was needed for atomic bomb development in the Second World War.

After the war, Bagley's went on to create a very dark black glass, known as 'jetique'. 

The eyepopping colours of Bagley's glassware makes it perfect to be projected in The Timekeepers. 

If you'd like to see more, there's a whole Glass Room at Pontefract Museum (don't worry, these ones aren't radioactive!) 

Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb

A celebration of Wakefield's heritage wouldn't be complete without rhubarb!

Thanks to good soil mixed with lots of ashes, horse manure and textile waste, and just the right amount of rain, Wakefield specialises in 'forced rhubarb'. The city forms part of the 'Rhubarb Triangle' with Leeds and Morley.

There's a display about the history of growing rhubarb at Wakefield Museum, where you can even hear it growing. The sound might surprise you!

You can also find out more about why Wakefield roots for rhubarb in this blog post.

Phenakistiscope discs, 1880s

They might be a bit of a mouthful to pronounce, but phenakistiscope discs are actually an early type of animation.

They were invented in the early 1800s, long before film or even photography as we know it. 

Our collection of phenakistiscope discs, including this one pictured, belonged to the Farrers. The Farrers were a famous clock-making family from Pontefract. Hence the link to The Timekeepers! 

The Illuminos team bring these discs to life through digitally replicating their analogue animation.

Playmakers - Sykes and Slazenger

A Slazenger quiver of arrows, 1950s

Wakefield has quite the sporting heritage! Our Playmakers collection tells the story of how, for more than a century, Horbury was a centre of sporting excellence and innovation.

The factory at Horbury was first founded by William Sykes, and then became Slazengers during the Second World War.

Horbury-made sporting equipment supplied the World Cup, Challenge Cup, and was endorsed by sports stars including Steffi Graf and Don Bradman.

There's so many stories to tell about our sporting heritage - head to this blog for an introduction!

Commemorative marbles from A Reight Neet Aht, 1930s to 1950s 

Prepare yourself for a torrent of marbles to cascade down County Hall! And no, it's not just because we've lost ours... 

A game of marbles was a big deal in Castleford! From 1936 an unlikely and flamboyant charity event called 'A Reight Neet Aht' created a buzz at the Castleford Co-Operative Hall. 

Known as 'taws', these marbles contests raised money for Leeds Infirmary over the next 20 years.

The marbles for the tournament, along with glass trophies, were made in and around Castleford. They all look mighty impressive projected large in The Timekeepers!

You can don your gladrags for a glamorous game of marbles in A Reight Neet Aht at Castleford Museum.

The Wakefield Pageant, 1933

A group of girls from Thornes House Secondary School and Ings Road Central School acted as a 'ballet' steam train in the 1933 Wakefield Pageant!

The Pageant of Wakefield and the West Riding took place in June 1933 in Thornes Park, Wakefield. It celebrated Wakefield's past and present, and imagined the city's future.

A whole cast of schools and societies took part, each playing different roles from Wakefield's proud history. They also helped to make the costumes and lavish backdrops.

More than 2,000 performers took part in the Pageant over 10 performances. Thousands of people turned out to enjoy the spectacle.

Objects and photographs from the 1933 Pageant are projected alongside The Hatchling in The Timekeepers. The Hatchling was an amazing event during the summer of Our Year - Wakefield District 2024, which saw a dragon hatch in Wakefield.

The Wakefield Pageant was very much the 'Our Year' of 1933!

You can see a special art display inspired by the Wakefield Pageant by artist Louise Goult in the lower atrium of Wakefield One.

Anglo-Saxon cross, around 900 to 1000 AD

This stone cross is the first evidence of a settlement in modern Wakefield. 

The cross was probably used for preaching, and it stood in Wakefield's marketplace until 1546. It then disappeared until 1861, when Edmund Waterton (son of Charles Waterton) rescued it from the demlotion of an old butcher's shop. The cross shaft had been used as a doorstep to the butcher's!

Not only is this object important in telling us about the creation of Wakefield, it was once a vibrant and colourful creation. 

The cross is on display at Wakefield Museum - it is on loan courtesy of York Museums Trust.

100 Years of Collecting - A Trip to the Seaside

We're celebrating our centenary year throughout 2023 with new displays, digital content and events. 

As part of the celebrations, we created an interactive online exhibition starring 100 objects that represent our 100 Years of Collecting.

Each month, we’ll be looking at some of the objects in more detail and sharing other treasures from the collection in special themed blog posts.

It's been a bit of a dreary August - so we're taking you on a virtual trip to the seaside through our collection!

Mr Punch Glove Puppet

This little fellow is full of nostalgia for many local people!

He's part of a mid-20th century Punch and Judy puppet set that belonged to Featherstone legend, Albert Massey.

Albert was a surface worker with the coal board. In his spare time he often performed Punch and Judy puppet shows.

Albert Massey in the 1960s

Albert’s puppets and props were donated to the museum collection in the 1980s. The Mr Punch puppet representing Albert's story is one of our 100 Years of Collecting star objects.

As well as Punch and Judy themselves, the set also includes several of Mr Punch’s various enemies - the Policeman, the clown and the crocodile - who all often found themselves at the wrong end of Punch’s stick.

Albert performed in local venues such as Pontefract Park - but Punch and Judy shows will always be associated with the golden age of the British seaside holiday. 

Seaside Holidays

From the Victorian era onwards, red and white striped puppet show booths popped up on beaches and piers up and down the country. 

Here's a group of holidaymakers and daytrippers being entertained by a puppet show at Scarborough beach in the 1950s:

Some of these children look like they're enjoying the show more than others...

This photo is one of many captured by another local legend, Jack Hulme from Fryston. 

Hulme was a former colliery worker and hairdresser, and became an enthusiastic amateur photographer. He mostly photographed scenes from everyday life in Fryston and created an extraordinary record of industrial Yorkshire. 

Hulme’s charming action shot of a boy jumping over a makeshift hurdle is another of our 100 Years of Collecting star objects:

By the mid 20^th century, more people than ever before were heading to the coast. 

Public holidays and paid annual leave meant workers and their families could afford to take a seaside break. 

Employers and community groups often organised special excursions and laid on transport to the beach, such as these trips from Fryston. 

Jack Hulme joined them, and of course captured the trips in his photos:

The Fryston daytrippers - with 3 of the 10 buses they travelled over on in the background!

Rail companies also arranged extra services to seaside destinations during the summer. 

This posters advertising train times from Pontefract to the east coast was produced by Holmes Printers in Pontefract, for the Prince of Wales Colliery. 

Coal miners and their families packed onto the trains, ready for a day out with their buckets and spades.

Seaside souvenirs

No trip to the seaside would be complete without picking up a souvenir or two!

Ironically, these mementos of the east coast were actually made back over here, in Knottingley, by Bagley & Co Ltd: 

Bagley’s started as a bottle factory but became known for its innovative decorative coloured glass in the 1930s. 

The company’s iconic Andromeda bowl design also features in our 100 Years of Collecting:

What objects, photos or memories do you have of seaside trips from yesteryear? We'd love to hear from you!

Post in the comments, or email us at museums@wakfield.gov.uk. 

Click here for more on our 100 Years of Collecting project