Museum marks four years with dolls

Jacqui Cleaver - Sleaford Museum Curator, Mark Bamford - chairman and Jan Spooner - vice-chairman with the new dolls display. EMN-190904-131712001

Among the guests were the Mayor, representatives of the National Centre for Craft and Design, North Kesteven District Council, the Library and Sleaford in Bloom, as well as local historians Simon Pawley and Mike Turland.

It also saw the unveiling of a superb collection of peg dolls that was bequeathed to the museum by the family of Joan Fairgrieve of Lincoln, who began creating these unique dolls in 1974 and there are now well over 100.

Each doll is dressed in an authentic costume from the last 1,000 years of history and took hours of intricate needlecraft. They are displayed in historical scenes in the window and in display cases.

Joan kept a detailed record of every doll, where they had been exhibited and how many talks she had given.

She was also responsible for The Wombles TV characters. Some of her dolls have been loaned to Sleaford Library for a display.