Farming Fun at Ely Museum

Ely Museum welcomes the children of Ely’s PolishCommunity school for some farming fun!

During November, Ely Museum were delighted to welcome children from Ely’s Polish Community School to learn more about farming in the fens, and discovered how similar it is to farming in Poland. After comparing the two, the children discovered many similarities in the landscape, farming and traditions between the two countries.

From learning about the types of vegetables grown in both English and Polish soil to exploring the museum’s collection of historic farming tools, and learning how eels, or ‘węgorz’ in Polish, were caught, the children enjoyed a mixture of crafts, stories and object handling as we got hands on with our shared history.

The older children also visited the traditional fenland ‘Wise Woman’ and found out about the different cures people had in the fens for illnesses and accidents – whether that’s a few drops of eel blood on a cut to help it heal or by adding some cool and slimy eel skin to a burn. Ultimately the children decided that, for now at least, they preferred to stick with modern medicine!

Emily Allen, Community Engagement Officer at Ely Museum says;

“We’ve had lots of fun at Ely Museum with the children from Ely’s Polish Community School this month, and we’ve learnt so much about the similarities between farming in Ely and farming in Poland. From the types of food grown, the landscape and the different traditions in both places, the children have been able to explore our shared heritage through objects, food, and of course, lots of
fun! Dziękuję to all the children and volunteers from the Ely Polish Community School for sharing your knowledge of Polish farming with the museum too!”

The children added they “didn’t know how similar Poland and England were before” and that handling of farming objects was “lots of fun because we don’t have anything like this today”

It is with the support of the Art Fund, who’s generous support of Ely Museum make activities like this possible and helps us to connect with our communities and celebrate our shared heritage.

To look out for upcoming events, find out more about visiting the museum and join our mailing list, please visit www.elymuseum.org.uk

Press release from Ely Museum

Photo credit: Ely Museum