Exhibition 'Echoes of War: The Somerset Countryside 1914-1918' in Somerset Rural Life Museum
A new exhibition at Somerset Rural Life Museum explores the many ways in which rural Somerset was affected by the events of the First World War.
Using objects, archive documents and photographs, the exhibition reveals how the First World War profoundly changed the county’s rural communities. Visitors can discover more about life on the home front and the ways in which Somerset people supported the war effort.
Somerset’s landscape was used as a place of respite and recuperation for wounded soldiers. Red Cross hospitals were set-up across the county and many country houses and schools were converted for military use. A remarkable collection of watercolours illustrating daily life at Hinton House Red Cross Hospital near Crewkerne will be digitally displayed for the first time. The drawings, by Nurse Dorothy Maud Hole, will be accompanied by her diary detailing hospital admissions and autograph books signed by the soldiers.
