General Chat

Amanda, there were some lovely exhibits there, weren't there, I used to love the cavemen in their cave set up and the bird scenes too with the appropriate sound effects.

My son used to like the skebelon, he couldn't get his mouth round skeleton when he was young lol

Lizx

Lol Liz.........I bet he will feel at home in the freezer : )

I remember him well........frightened the life out of me when I was a kiddie.

Amanda

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Norwich Castle Museum's infamous 111-year-old Victorian polar bear has been wrapped in a mattress bag waiting to go into the freezer to be 'debugged'.

It took more than two days for museum staff to get the bear out of its 1960s display case by chipping away very carefully at the plaster without damaging it.

The work is part of a huge operation to rid dozens of artefacts in Norfolk's natural history collection of the bugs that are eating them.

Dr David Waterhouse, assistant curator of natural history at Norwich Castle Museum, said: “The bear was put into its current case in the 1960s and then 'polyfiller' was used to create an iceberg effect around him.

“This proved to be problematic as we had to very carefully chip away at the 'polyfiller', which is rather reminiscent of very hard cake-icing, without damaging the precious Victorian polar bear.”

He said all the display birds at the museum had been put into the freezer and it was now the turn of the mammals including the polar bear.

Dr Waterhouse said the specimens - ranging from small birds to a lion and antelope - all have to be wrapped in plastic bags and placed in the freezer, which has been installed at the museum, for three to five days at minus 30C until the bugs are dead.


I have spent so many hours at this Museum with my son and some of the children I have minded over the years, and remember this bear very well lol

Lizx