Inside the secret storehouse

Built by eccentric paper-maker and non-conformist Mayor of Oxford, John Towle, in the mid-19th century, this curious "The mainstay of our work is producing travelling exhibitions - such as the recent one chronicling the Witney blanket industry - which involves conserving (but not restoring) objects, and preparing them for display. We have a wonderful team here, with such diverse skills - it is a joy to see real specialists producing their work."

A database is being built up at the centre that includes not only historical information about each object in the collection but images too, which make searching easier. The database also enables staff to keep tabs on exhibits while they're on the move.

Unlike a museum, where historical pieces are often displayed chronologically, the resource centre's organisation is governed by the conservation needs of the material. Metal, for instance, whether prehistoric iron or bronze, or more modern, such as church silver, has to be kept in an individual sensitive area' with a very dry atmosphere, to prevent deterioration.

Clothing has to be hung in cool and clean conditions where it is easily accessible to regular checking for voracious pests. Delicate dresses are stored well away from robust uniforms with buttons, which might damage them if they came into contact.

Less fussy exhibits occupy the main body of the building. It's here that you'll see huge stones from a Neolithic barrow near Ascott-under-Wychwood (if they haven't yet made their planned return to a permanent home in the village), lead coffins used by the Romans, and great black timbers from a medieval bridge at Abingdon, which were stabilised at Portsmouth using methods employed on the Mary Rose. Although the collection as a whole should be viewed as dynamic, moving in and out of its partner museums, there are some objects which are defiantly static - open days are a way of allowing the public to see them.

The centre also has a number of paintings either by good Oxfordshire artists, or showing an interesting historical view, sometimes both - and a large collection of domestic items, such as cooking utensils and flat irons.

Many of these find their way into the themed Cultural Loans Scheme boxes, which are another part of the centre's educational remit.

"They are absolutely fantastic for schools and for reminiscence work in homes or day-centres for the elderly," said Christiane.

"People can handle the objects and talk about them in the context of their own lives. There is a huge demand but we don't have the funding to fulfil it.

"We'd like to have the Soldiers of Oxfordshire collection from Slade Park in Headington here eventually. It is full of very personal material that relatives want to revisit."

She hopes the building's badly-needed expansion won't be too long in coming.

Museums Resource Centre, Cotswold Dene, Standlake, Witney, OX29 7QG. Open to interested individuals and groups by appointment. Public open days twice a year, May and September.

Call 01865 300972 or visit the website: www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/museums construction used layers of paper and bitumen as walls, and must have been quite smelly to live in, if the faint odour of tar wafting from it today is anything to go by.

Your attention will also be grabbed by the pair of steers' heads (pictured below), complete with horns, from prize-winning cattle butchered by Rathbone Brothers in Banbury, and the enormous timber bob' - a sort of overgrown wooden gun carriage - used for pulling logs from the forest.

If this sounds like a random accumulation of items in storage for a rainy day, that's far from the truth, as Christiane Jeuckens, the centre's manager and head of conservation, explained.

"We have a very tight acquisitions policy. Objects are carefully selected for the light they throw on the story of Oxfordshire and its population. We meet the staff of the museums we work with - county council, district council or trust-run - every month to discuss whether to accept proposed donations."

As the centre has already filled accommodation that was intended to last it another five years, they try to concentrate on gaps in the collection, such as men's workwear, which is rarely found because it tended to be worn until it fell apart. It is important, though, because it can be used to show how industry changed in the county.

The men's smocks they've managed to unearth, including one made for the Great Exhibition in 1851, exemplify the former need for a warm outer garment with reinforced stitching to protect your other clothes from the wear and tear of agricultural work.

Clothing, generally, is a valuable resource for social history, and can be particularly interesting if it shows signs of alteration.

"We have a dress that belonged to William Morris's younger daughter May in the mid-late 19th century. It was already 70 or 80 years old then, so she altered it to look more flowing and Pre-Raphaelite."

Another area of interest to centre staff is the material culture illustrating life in Oxfordshire since the last war. "As a society," said Christiane, "we tend to treat the recent past with less respect".

At the moment, debate is raging over the offer of a Teasmade.

"Stylistically, the Teasmade represents what the 1970s were about. It reflects people's busier lifestyles, and the luxury of having technology that works for you, like a robot. It was almost a status symbol. On the other hand, it is a mass-produced item and there are also questions about its conservation - it is plastic. And it's a working object, so should it be kept in working order and what would that entail?"

The resource centre's building, which is tent-shaped, like a medieval pavilion, and ornamented with a row of weather vanes silhouetted against the sky, was designed in the early 1990s to house the county's reserve collection, previously stored in an assortment of bunkers, schoolrooms and Nissen huts.

"There was rapid, and avid, collecting going on in the 1960s and 70s," said Christiane. "People realised that knowledge about the county's history, and the evidence associated with it, were being lost. There was also a growing collection of archaeological artefacts, because of building work in the county, that needed to be housed centrally for research purposes, and properly documented.