Museum visit Japanese style

I decided to visit the Market Harborough museum on the day their Roman helmet from the Hallaton treasure returned onto display. I partly did this because they were going to have ‘Roman soldiers’ in the town centre. I assumed that Number One Son could like the sight of the soldiers with their helmets and breast pieces. Naturally, this was going to depend on the weather, which turned out to be splendid.

In my mind Market Harborough is much nearer than in reality. After all, it lies near the county boundary in the south-east so we were quite late considering that we had to be elsewhere at 2 pm. However, I could count on Number One Son to make it quick.

The sight of the ‘Romans’ did not set him alight. This may have been partly due to the fact that the soldier volunteers did not engage hugely with the people in their surroundings while they chatted happily with each other. Some of them only had short tunics without any cover for their legs so I can understand they were more interested in huddling together and keeping their spirits high than posing for any photos. The outfits and the horses made a wonderful show in the bright sunlight, though. Sadly, the horses scared Number One Son so we headed to the museum.

In the end I managed to take one photo of the helmet and the nice exhibition before Number One Son escaped the crowd to the side room. Wisely, the museum has a large box of toys in this room. A London bus and a fire engine seem to interest my son more than any archaeological finds in the premises. Of course, he is still too short to see the displays properly but he clearly comes to Archaeological Husband in his apparent dislike in larger crowds.