In this episode, I talk to Jo Hatton, Keeper of the Natural History Collection at the Horniman Museum & Gardens in South London. She picked a pair of taxidermied huia birds from the collection as her underrated objects.

For this episode, I revisit a museum featured in season 1 – Ipswich Museum. This time, Tim Rousham from the visitor services team at the museum discusses two pattern-welded swords from the 9th century AD. Tune in to this episode to learn more about designing beautiful and effective swords and how their shape changed over time and why.

Vanessa Meade, Curator of Exhibitions and Interpretations at the Museum of the Home, talks to me about a humble yet special 1960s clock for this episode of Past Matters. 

Compton Verney in Warwickshire has one of the finest collections of folk art in the UK. In this episode Director Julie Finch tells me why ‘Schooner approaching the harbour’ by Alfred Wallis, which is painted on a tea tray, is a piece of folk art that particularly resonates with her during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic lockdown.

When you’re asked to imagine an iconic item of clothing the humble smock probably doesn’t come to mind. However, in this episode, Dr Ollie Douglas, Curator at The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL), convinces me as to the importance of the smock to English identity.

In this episode, Zofia Matyjaszkiewicz, who is the Collections Assistant at the Roman Baths in Bath, tells me why a patera – a shallow libation bowl – is her underrated object at this world-famous site.

While the previous episode of Past Matters reminded listeners to look down when visiting historic houses, in a pleasing symmetry, this episode reminds them to look up.

This episode of Past Matters should encourage visitors to England’s finest stately homes to look down as well as up for future visits, as Assistant Curator and Archivist at Harewood House, Becky Burton, describes the significance of a grand Axminster carpet for social standing.

As a special Christmas treat for you, my listeners, I have done something a bit different for this episode of Past Matters. Instead of asking a museum, gallery or historic house what their most underrated item is, I have instead asked historian Nicola Tallis, what historical object she thinks is underrated.