Rooms at the Mansion

Some twenty-five members led by Bob Markham visited the Mansion on the afternoon 30 May. Memories were soon brought back for many of us. The former Fitzgerald Room containing furniture and pictures once the property of Suffolk poet Edward Fitzgerald, renowned for his translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, is now the Learning Room.

Beyond our memories, at the end of the 19th century the Museum Committee used the Kitchen for cookery classes (the Committee were then responsible for Science and Technology teaching in the town). I would have enjoyed their Lobster Cutlets and Banana Charlotte but "Hints about Stoves and Scullery Work"? Oh, and which rooms went to Aberystwyth during the Second World War? To keep them safe from the bombing which was breaking windows at the Mansion, the contents of the Wingfield Room and of the Hamlet Watling Room (now the Butler's Room) spent several years at the National Library of Wales.

Bob Markham