Novium

Today we visited the Novium, Chichester’s new museum. It’s cleverly built over old Roman baths, the excavations of which can be seen in the huge entrance hall. On the wall behind a video is streaming of re-created baths in use, quite an amazing sight.

The exhibits are interestingly grouped, not by period or usage as you might expect, but by the categories Beauty, Sorrow, Joy and Creativity. you can see a couple of display cases in the background. Not quite sure where these portable stocks fit in, possibly in the Sorrow section; I imagine you would be pretty sorry if you were caught debauching and being drunk and disorderly out in the countryside, not expecting to be punished. But these stocks were wheeled to any parish at the shortest notice, according to a newspaper article of 1828, the year they were made. It was thought that the public shame and humiliation of the stocks was a deterrent too, with many offenders choosing to pay fines instead. No civil rights in those days.

The contraption you can just make out behind is a funeral bier.