Collections Care and Conservation - Spalding Gentlemen's Society
Source: https://www.sgsoc.org/conservation
Archived: 2026-04-23 17:09
Collections Care and Conservation - Spalding Gentlemen's Society
Collections Care and Conservation
Collections Care and Conservation
79design
2026-02-25T12:12:42+00:00
We carry out a lot of different tasks as part of Collections Care and Conservation. But none of it would be possible without our wonderful team of volunteers. Since we moved out of the Museum (for building works), with the last items leaving in March 2025, we have processed several hundred items through our conservation process.
The Conservation Process
First, items that have organic components sit in plastic boxes in the Quarantine Area for 2-4 weeks. This ensures that any insect pests or mould spores that may be present have been kept cool and dry and won’t be active when we begin to clean them. For simple organic objects, we can freeze them in our industrial freezer to kill off any living pests, but this is not suitable for a lot of mixed material or fragile objects.
Next, the volunteers complete condition surveys of every item. This includes measurements, identification of marks where possible and sometimes even little sketches, as well as an idea of what may need to be done to the object. This might be as simple as “dry clean with a smoke sponge” or much more complicated and “in need of repair by conservator”.
Then every object is treated in accordance with that condition survey. Simple treatments are undertaken by volunteers who know how to dry clean, wet clean, rust treat, rehydrate wood, rehydrate paper and some know how to do very simple Japanese tissue repairs under conservator Mary’s expert guidance. More complicated treatments are done by Mary, as a qualified museum conservator, or sent off to other conservators with specialisms. We are very lucky that Mary is trained in a wide range of object types and repairs, so that happens infrequently!
Our Collections Database
Once the cleaning is done, the items have a custom-made box formed by volunteer Chris using museum-safe acid-free materials. And then these need to be shelved, labelled and located on our computer database by Collections Officer Eleanor. Volunteers like Patty have undertaken specific tasks, such as going through over 700 wax seals by hand and matching them with their individual numbers by sight and locating them in the handmade trays, cut to keep each seal safe and not snapped!
The next step will be going through and digitising every item so we have clear, colour-accurate, scaled images of every item from every angle. But that will be a mammoth task and we will need computer-interested volunteers to help!
If anything mentioned above seems like something you would like to get stuck into, then our conservation volunteers come in on a Tuesday and take part in all aspects of museum object care. We encourage you to get in touch with Eleanor at
eleanor.chadd@sgsoc.org
if you have any questions or would like to arrange to drop in to have a go, particularly with digitisation!
Collections Highlights
April 20, 2026
Medieval ring discovered by local metal detectorists donated to SGS
Laura Fanthorpe
2026-04-20T10:27:48+01:00
Spalding Gentlemen’s Society - Britain’s oldest provincial learned society and the UK’s second-oldest surviving museum - has acquired a remarkable new addition for its collections: a medieval ring discovered in a field in Gosberton.
Back in...
Read more...
April 15, 2026
My time as Heritage Associate
Laura Fanthorpe
2026-04-20T10:33:02+01:00
I began my time at Spalding Gentlemen’s Society by volunteering to work on the Parish Library, a collection of books that used to belong to the Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas, comprising...
Read more...
February 12, 2026
Accepting artefacts
Laura Fanthorpe
2026-02-13T15:55:07+00:00
Many people would describe our collection as 'a bit random', but we prefer the term 'eclectic'! But this doesn’t mean that we just accept any object or archive that comes our way. We must consider...
Read more...
March 26, 2020
A Deadly Cargo
SGSocAdmin
2020-03-26T08:33:50+00:00
In the autumn of 1635, a ship docked at the Norfolk port of Yarmouth. It probably looked little different from the many other ships which plied their trade across the southern North Sea, between the...
Read more...
August 6, 2017
SGS Weathervane
SGSocAdmin
2018-07-26T11:28:07+01:00
This item is not in the museum, but rather on it. When walking past the museum, many may have noticed a ship perched upon the roof. That ship is in fact a weathervane.
The weathervane came...
Read more...
July 7, 2017
An ‘Instrument of Torture’
SGSocAdmin
2018-07-26T11:28:07+01:00
Placed on the top of the Shell Cabinet in the Turner Gallery this small, 150 x 100, frame contains an ‘Instrument of Torture’. The caption tells us where it came from and who had ‘worn’...
Read more...
July 5, 2017
Armes & Memoires of ffamilies in Lincolnshire
SGSocAdmin
2018-07-27T07:54:09+01:00
Maurice Johnson "Armes & Memoires of ffamilies in Lincolnshire. Collected from Authentick Records, Rolls, MSS, & other Monuments of Antiquity & Creditt, & Authors cited"
This is an exceptional example of early eighteenth-century antiquarian practice. The...
Read more...
July 5, 2017
Astronomy in the Early Minutes
SGSocAdmin
2018-07-27T07:54:09+01:00
Astronomy in the Early Minutes
The Society’s collection includes a three inch reflecting telescope, a photograph of which graces the front cover of this Annual Report. It was bought in 1761, clearly for use by the...
Read more...
Get in Touch
Spalding Gentlemen’s Society,
9 Broad Street,
Spalding,
PE11 1TB
SGS is a Registered Charity, no. 216131
Sign up to our email newsletter
Recent News
Medieval ring discovered by local metal detectorists donated to SGS
20/04/2026
My time as Heritage Associate
15/04/2026
Exciting new exhibitions exploring the history of ‘Science’ and ‘Navigation’ to open in Spalding
23/03/2026
Don’t miss our March 2026 Lectures
05/03/2026
Musings from the Museum 36: William Dodd
23/02/2026
Spalding Gentlemen's Society. © 2024. All Rights Reserved
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Collections Care and Conservation
Collections Care and Conservation
79design
2026-02-25T12:12:42+00:00
We carry out a lot of different tasks as part of Collections Care and Conservation. But none of it would be possible without our wonderful team of volunteers. Since we moved out of the Museum (for building works), with the last items leaving in March 2025, we have processed several hundred items through our conservation process.
The Conservation Process
First, items that have organic components sit in plastic boxes in the Quarantine Area for 2-4 weeks. This ensures that any insect pests or mould spores that may be present have been kept cool and dry and won’t be active when we begin to clean them. For simple organic objects, we can freeze them in our industrial freezer to kill off any living pests, but this is not suitable for a lot of mixed material or fragile objects.
Next, the volunteers complete condition surveys of every item. This includes measurements, identification of marks where possible and sometimes even little sketches, as well as an idea of what may need to be done to the object. This might be as simple as “dry clean with a smoke sponge” or much more complicated and “in need of repair by conservator”.
Then every object is treated in accordance with that condition survey. Simple treatments are undertaken by volunteers who know how to dry clean, wet clean, rust treat, rehydrate wood, rehydrate paper and some know how to do very simple Japanese tissue repairs under conservator Mary’s expert guidance. More complicated treatments are done by Mary, as a qualified museum conservator, or sent off to other conservators with specialisms. We are very lucky that Mary is trained in a wide range of object types and repairs, so that happens infrequently!
Our Collections Database
Once the cleaning is done, the items have a custom-made box formed by volunteer Chris using museum-safe acid-free materials. And then these need to be shelved, labelled and located on our computer database by Collections Officer Eleanor. Volunteers like Patty have undertaken specific tasks, such as going through over 700 wax seals by hand and matching them with their individual numbers by sight and locating them in the handmade trays, cut to keep each seal safe and not snapped!
The next step will be going through and digitising every item so we have clear, colour-accurate, scaled images of every item from every angle. But that will be a mammoth task and we will need computer-interested volunteers to help!
If anything mentioned above seems like something you would like to get stuck into, then our conservation volunteers come in on a Tuesday and take part in all aspects of museum object care. We encourage you to get in touch with Eleanor at
eleanor.chadd@sgsoc.org
if you have any questions or would like to arrange to drop in to have a go, particularly with digitisation!
Collections Highlights
April 20, 2026
Medieval ring discovered by local metal detectorists donated to SGS
Laura Fanthorpe
2026-04-20T10:27:48+01:00
Spalding Gentlemen’s Society - Britain’s oldest provincial learned society and the UK’s second-oldest surviving museum - has acquired a remarkable new addition for its collections: a medieval ring discovered in a field in Gosberton.
Back in...
Read more...
April 15, 2026
My time as Heritage Associate
Laura Fanthorpe
2026-04-20T10:33:02+01:00
I began my time at Spalding Gentlemen’s Society by volunteering to work on the Parish Library, a collection of books that used to belong to the Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas, comprising...
Read more...
February 12, 2026
Accepting artefacts
Laura Fanthorpe
2026-02-13T15:55:07+00:00
Many people would describe our collection as 'a bit random', but we prefer the term 'eclectic'! But this doesn’t mean that we just accept any object or archive that comes our way. We must consider...
Read more...
March 26, 2020
A Deadly Cargo
SGSocAdmin
2020-03-26T08:33:50+00:00
In the autumn of 1635, a ship docked at the Norfolk port of Yarmouth. It probably looked little different from the many other ships which plied their trade across the southern North Sea, between the...
Read more...
August 6, 2017
SGS Weathervane
SGSocAdmin
2018-07-26T11:28:07+01:00
This item is not in the museum, but rather on it. When walking past the museum, many may have noticed a ship perched upon the roof. That ship is in fact a weathervane.
The weathervane came...
Read more...
July 7, 2017
An ‘Instrument of Torture’
SGSocAdmin
2018-07-26T11:28:07+01:00
Placed on the top of the Shell Cabinet in the Turner Gallery this small, 150 x 100, frame contains an ‘Instrument of Torture’. The caption tells us where it came from and who had ‘worn’...
Read more...
July 5, 2017
Armes & Memoires of ffamilies in Lincolnshire
SGSocAdmin
2018-07-27T07:54:09+01:00
Maurice Johnson "Armes & Memoires of ffamilies in Lincolnshire. Collected from Authentick Records, Rolls, MSS, & other Monuments of Antiquity & Creditt, & Authors cited"
This is an exceptional example of early eighteenth-century antiquarian practice. The...
Read more...
July 5, 2017
Astronomy in the Early Minutes
SGSocAdmin
2018-07-27T07:54:09+01:00
Astronomy in the Early Minutes
The Society’s collection includes a three inch reflecting telescope, a photograph of which graces the front cover of this Annual Report. It was bought in 1761, clearly for use by the...
Read more...
Get in Touch
Spalding Gentlemen’s Society,
9 Broad Street,
Spalding,
PE11 1TB
SGS is a Registered Charity, no. 216131
Sign up to our email newsletter
Recent News
Medieval ring discovered by local metal detectorists donated to SGS
20/04/2026
My time as Heritage Associate
15/04/2026
Exciting new exhibitions exploring the history of ‘Science’ and ‘Navigation’ to open in Spalding
23/03/2026
Don’t miss our March 2026 Lectures
05/03/2026
Musings from the Museum 36: William Dodd
23/02/2026
Spalding Gentlemen's Society. © 2024. All Rights Reserved
Website by
79DESIGN: Website Design Lincolnshire
Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options
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Manage {vendor_count} vendors
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