Model of a Roman carpenter's workshop at Calleva
By Judith Acland and Mary Stella Edwards - 1950s
Model of a Roman carpenter's workshop made by Judith Acland and Mary Stella Edwards, 1950s
This model of a Roman carpenter’s workshop was commissioned in the 1950s by Reading Museum for our Silchester Gallery, along with other models depicting different aspects of life in Roman times such as a living room and kitchen.
The detailed models were made by Judith Acland and Mary Stella Edwards, who met whilst they were students at Regent Street Polytechnic and became life partners, living together until Judith’s death in 1971. They were both talented artists and Mary also published poetry. They used a small cabin at Bucks Mills in north Devon as their studio. The two of them exhibited together in London at shows including the New English Art Club, the Alpine Club and Society of Women Artists. These models were a collaboration between the two of them: Judith made the models and Mary painted the backdrops.
The models are a reconstruction of how life might have been in the Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum, Silchester. Excavations at the site were begun in the 1860s by Reverend J. G. Joyce and were continued, first by the Society of Antiquaries of London from 1890 to 1909 and then Reading University in the 1970s. Finds from the early excavations make up the bulk of Reading Museum’s Silchester Collection, one of the most important collections from a Roman town in Britain.
Museum object number