Whats on in 2011
This summer the Porch Museum is brimming with new films, display boards and projects, all gathered together for the people of Godmanchester to enjoy and of course anybody else who visits this lovely town.
There is an exciting new project which we hope will 
involve many people in our local community. We have been extremely lucky to receive a wonderful set of rare photographs from old St. Ann’s School in St Ann’s Lane. brought to us by a well wisher who put them in the charge of Mrs. Shirley Brown at Godmanchester’s Community School, these charming photographs show children at the old school during the 1920s, 30s and through to the 1960s when the old school finally closed.
They are not just class pictures, but also some lovely informal snaps of the children in the playground, in class and celebrating Christmases long past. Teachers are there as well. The children are dressed for their time, all with beautiful faces and happy smiles.
Welcome To The Porch Museum Godmanchester
The Museum is housed in the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, a Grade II listed building situated in the heart of the historic town of Godmanchester in Cambridgeshire. We are an independent museum and a part of the Friends of the Queen Elizabeth School a registered charity. The museum is run by a small team of enthusiastic volunteers who work together to record the town’s history and its people. We receive no government funding and rely on funds from various organisations, donations and the generosity of our visitors to fund our projects.
One of the Porch Museum aims is to produce and show short films devoted to the history of the town. We want to capture, through the memories of some of the oldest members of our community, as clear a perception as we can get of the way life was in this lovely town during the first half of the 20th century.
Godmanchester is an unusual town because many of the old families who have lived here for hundreds of years and whose ancestors are buried in the churchyard of St. Mary the Virgin, are still here. Markham, Arnold, Thompson and Mortlock are just a few of the many old names still represented here. In many cases we are recording not only memories of old Godmanchester from the vibrant and amusing senior members of these families, but through them the memories and experiences of their grandparents and great grandparents.
This way there’s every hope that we can bring to the community through snatches of remembered anecdote, at least an echo of how it was to live in Victorian Godmanchester.
Whats on in 2012
Wonderful Roman treasures photographed from the private collections of Godmanchester people, and films about Roman Godmanchester will be shown for the first time by the Porch Museum next year, celebrating the town’s history as part of its programme for the 800th anniversary of Godmanchester’s Charter . Roman Godmanchester was a thriving military and market town. Now you can see, for the first time a wealth of Roman artefacts left for us by soldiers and civilians two thousand years ago.
There will be rare enamelled jewellery, luxury Samian ware imported from France and Germany and dishes, pitchers and drinking cups, some manufactured in Godmanchester’s own kilns. Particularly lovely are the Venus figurines and a horse which symbolises the horse god Epona, placed in a little girl’s burial to protect her on the journey to the after life. Godmanchester gardeners will be charmed by the little bronze horse’s head probably used to decorate Roman hanging baskets.
Five distinguished archaeologists are donating their precious time to verifying the objects for a catalogue, and through the artefacts, will explaining on film about Roman Godmanchester’s daily life.