Totnes Fashion and Textiles Museum is, for now at least, housed in the best preserved Tudor merchant’s house in the town.
Bogan House which is in the High Street opposite the Civic Centre was enlarged to its present size around 1550.
Sadly the Grade I star listed building is set to be sold so the museum will either need to find a suitable new home or close.
Honorary Curator Julia Fox said: “We’re putting on some of our favourite objects, part of the cream of the collection.
“We start in the 17th century and run to the 20th and in the final case have just a few of our hundred plus wedding dresses.”
Julia explained how it all began: “Back in the 60s, three people who were friends at Dartington, and members of the Playgoers: Peter Clapham- an artist, actor, designer, playwright, director, Annette Cocker who came down from London and was drawn into the drama department to teach costume Paula Lorell, whose husband Roger was in charge of the apple orchards.
Paula came down with Dorothy Elmhurst to Dartington to help her set up the household.
“They formed the Playgoers and Paula became the costume mistress as well as an actress.
“Each of them had a private collection and put them together.
“They put on a costume parade to raise money for Paignton Hospital.
“Other charities wanted them to do the same so they put on other shows at National Trust properties, at Powderham Castle and other places and people started to donate items.
Things just grew as Julia continued:
“The BBC had a programme run from Plymouth which was the forerunner of Antiques Roadshow and fronted by Hugh Scully.
“They then received parcels from across the country.
“The group decided a permanent exhibition was needed and found two rooms at 10A High Street above the shop which is now The Loft.
“There was an annual exhibition from 74 to 86 and in that year Douglas Mitchell who has bought this house and renovated it offered the use of the building.
“They had public money to renovate the 16th century plaster ceilings but this required public access so this solved everyone’s problems.
“We’ve put on an annual exhibition since 87 and the only year we couldn’t do was last year as the builders took the front of the building off.
“Even in 2020 I put a one-room exhibition up on my own.
“Someone came and filmed it and it went on our website so it existed virtually.”
Then it came to look around the exhibition with many garments including a linen shirt which may have dated from 1630 and be older than anything in the collection of London’s Victoria & Albert Museum.
There will be some circa 1650 gauntlets in one of the cabinets.
Items from the 19th century included a court dress owned by Sir Morris O’Connell and from the 20th a dress from the jazz age.
The museum will reopen on June 4 at Bogan House on the High Street.
