PRIMARY school pupils took charge of The Bowes Museum as part of National Museum Takeover Day.
Children from Woodland, Butterknowle and Frosterly primary schools converged on the iconic Barnard Castle venue to run its social media, oversee its exhibitions and artefacts and supervise conservation activities.
They also got to follow museum director Hannah Fox on her rounds, catching a glimpse into how the museum is managed.
Museum press officer Alison White said: “They took over the museum, shadowing different departments.
“They went on a bug hunt with the conservators and shadowed the director to find out how to run a museum – they learnt how the museum ticks.
“They also had a go at object labelling and object handling.” Conservator Bryan Dunkel led the bug hunt.
He said: “There are pests that like to eat museum objects – textiles, wood, paintings, any organic material.”
Elsewhere collections manager Jane Whittaker showed children how to “read” an object to find out how and why it was made.
They were also taught how to handle some of the rare artefacts, which included a carving of the ancient Egyptian god of the dead Osiris that dates back between 2,000 and 3,000 years.
![A COUNTY councillor is backing a campaign to get a pedestrian crossing in Staindrop. Frustrated parish councillors in the village summoned their county council representative Cllr George Richardson to their latest meeting to discuss several issues, including the call for a safe way to cross the A688. Earlier this year their request for a crossing was turned down by the county council’s highways officers. Parish council chairman Jonothan Raper described the reasons for the refusal as “spurious” and called on Cllr Richardson to support their campaign. He added: “One of the arguments they made was there is no clear line of desire when they studied the village – well this isn’t a clear line of desire because there isn’t a crossing, people cross whenever they can. “When the lollipop person was there, one of the things I noticed was people would walk all the way down to the lollipop person to cross the road to go to the shop or to go to the school.” He added a problem of parking at the primary school is exacerbated because people are too afraid to walk their children across the road. Cllr Richardson said he had supported previous attempts for a crossing point with the first being made about 15 years ago. He added: “We went fairly well down the road with that and they looked into it. The only recommended place was where the bus stop is and to get the visibility splays, people on the other side of the road would lose their parking. “That didn’t go down well so it just died a death.” Cllr Raper said he suspected the real reason for the officers’ refusal was the cost of installing a crossing. He added that much of the cost could be recovered from savings made on not having to employ a lollipop patrol. Cllr Raper said: “A lollipop person only provides a benefit of crossing for three hours of the day. You are getting 21 extra hours of crossing time [with a pedestrian crossing].” Cllr Richardson said he would raise the issue with the county council’s cabinet member for highways, Cllr John Shuttleworth.](https://teesdalemercury.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/georgeR-120x86.jpg)
