The Mapping Museum research project was created to look at the increase in the number of museums in the UK. As part of this project, Brenda Wilson was interviewed about the Flower Makers Museum.

Explore more about the Mapping Museum project here and read Wilson's interview below:

Interview summary

Name of person being interviewed: Brenda Wilson

Location of interview: Flower Makers Museum

Date of Recording: 23 October 2018

Recording Length: 01:14:27

Name of interviewer: Dr Toby Butler

Description: The Flower Makers Museum in Hastings displays the equipment, inventory and stock of the Shirley Leaf and Petal Company which manufactures silk flowers and leaves for shop displays, weddings, confectionary, Christmas crackers, and Remembrance Day poppies.

Summary of main points in interview: Brenda Wilson is owner of the Shirley Leaf and Petal Company. She started putting the museum together in 1991 (it opened in 1993). Wilson was motivated to open a museum in order to highlight the difficult life of homeworkers in the past. The company started in Bow, East London and later moved to Hastings, using homeworkers in both locations.

Wilson discusses her background in Birmingham (she also spent some time in South Wales as an evacuee), working as a youth worker and then in exhibition organisation at the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre (NEC). She bought the Shirley company and they continue to have major clients including film companies and West End theatres. She explains it is a working museum where people can see flower-makers at work. The museum preserves the company’s unique history, sample and tool collections, and has featured in documentaries world-wide.