With a range of fascinating memories, photos and objects already coming in to the Asking Andover Project Space, we took the opportunity yesterday to visit the Hampshire Cultural Trust stores at Chilcomb House near Winchester for further inspiration.

The visit was intended to give volunteers from Andover Museum, and participants from previous project sessions, the chance to see what treasures the stores hold, and what images/artefacts might be available to add to the Project Space, to help form our final exhibition.

We explored the Natural History collection with its taxidermy, drawers of insects and antique herbariums, the Costume Store and the Social History Store with items included from phones and soap, to printing blocks and medical instruments, and we went inside the Vehicle Store, a big barn-like space where old vehicles are held and restored.

Lastly, we looked at a group of objects that HCT’s Mark Barden had already identified as being linked with the Andover area, and talked about how including the different objects in our exhibition could support and help to tell the stories that have been shared by local people.

In contrast to your average exhibition, where a group of artworks or artefacts are gathered together and put on display in one go, our exhibition has been evolving over the last few months. The objects that are chosen from the stores, will come together with those lent by the public, and artwork, poetry and other materials, to form the final version of the exhibition, just in time for the school holidays.

So there’s still time to come and visit us, to add your own photographs, lend your own objects and write a memory or two on our timeline.

Current themes that are emerging include the Carnival, School (including school milk and milk bottles), and the changing face of the High Street, with different shops coming and going. If you remember buying sweets in Woolworths as a child, helping your own children make costumes for the Carnival, or have an old school photo we could copy and include, please do call in to the Museum or email to let us know.