Eye - 06 January 2012

Dolls at Sibford to New Year thoughts

Dolls at Sibford

A unique collection of dolls has found a new home at Sibford School near Banbury.

The dolls, each dressed meticulously in accurate period costume, are part of a collection that was put together by Beatrice Saxon Snell, a Quaker who lived from 1900 to 1982. The dolls were used to illustrate lectures on costume and were an adjunct to the Oxfordshire Drama Wardrobe, which Beatrice founded. They are now being lovingly restored by staff and pupils at the Quaker-run school and regular ‘Dolly Hospitals’ are held to help bring them back to their former glory.

The first doll in the collection was an Anglo-Saxon worker, complete with garters made of straw to hold up his leggings. Each costume was hand sewn and some of the dolls were made by hand. Much of the work was done by Beatrice, and her sister Nina, in the war years of 1939-45. By the 1960s the doll collection had grown to fill six suitcases and stretched from Roman times to the ‘Roaring Twenties’.

Beatrice travelled all over the country giving lectures on costume and the social history it reflected. Mike Finch, Sibford School archivist and a former pupil, recalls Beatrice visiting Sibford: ‘I have happy memories of Beatrice’s visual lectures, using her dolls, whilst a pupil here. It is wonderful to see the dolls back at Sibford again.’

New Year Thoughts

Let’s raise a cheer for the New Year
Although we’re on the brink
And if the news serves to confuse –
It’s time to stop and think.

I must confess financial mess
Is hard for me to grasp.
One thing I know is the euro
Is on its final gasp.

It is not funny to lack money
And all of Europe’s waiting
To borrow more. Will Standard & Poor
Downgrade their credit rating?

Let’s think about the rest this coming year.
It looks like ‘plus ça change’ in North Korea.
And what of China? Will Iran cause drama?
Will Arab summer follow Arab spring?
And will Prince Charles at last succeed as King?
Will voters choose both Putin and Obama?

Let’s greet the year with joy, not fear
And fill your cup or glass.
With Friends like you I’ll muddle through,
Whatever comes to pass!

Melanie Jameson

Puzzle answers

Missing words:

1. the Real Presence
of God.
2. silence; sleep.
3. ministry
4. crushing
5. impoverish
6. love; truth
7. words; words
8. pure
9. religion
10. sensitivity
11. love
12. words
13. diamonds
14. poor
15. wrong; right

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