When Doug Fulcher walked into the Brushroom at Wymondham Heritage Museum he was taking a step back in time. Back to December 1947 when, aged 15 he became an apprentice at Briton Brush Co. Doug looked around the room pointing out familiar items and machinery as well as spotting familiar faces in photographs from his brush-making days.

Doug was following a family tradition. His father, John, was a brush factory warehouseman at Briton and his grandfather, also John, was a fibre drafter, brush manufacture.

Doug has generously donated a small collection of brushes to the museum and he dropped in to see his items on display together with photographs and a copy of his indentures he had supplied.

He is pictured in his apprentice days in 1948 with the master pan hand, George Pearce. Doug is making a “banister”, a general-purpose brush for hand-sweeping floors with a dustpan.

Among the brushes Doug has donated is one he made. It is used to clean under the grate of an open fireplace to remove the cold ash and dust, hence its short bristle.

Doug was born and bred in Wymondham and played a large part in town life. A keen cyclist, he was involved in many sports and leisure activities. In 1969 he formed a photographic club which became Wymondham Photographic Club.

In 1951 Doug joined the RAF as an armourer to do his National Service. After demobilisation in 1956 he trained as a Typewriter mechanic before becoming the local Agent for the Co-operative Insurance Society, and he remained as Agent for the next thirty-four years, retiring in June of 1992.

The museum’s Brushroom has also benefited from another donation. An extensive collection of brushes, books and brushmaking ephemera belonging to the late Mervyn Jones has been donated.

Mervyn Jones was an avid collector of brushes and related ephemera. He had been involved in brush manufacturing for the majority of his professional life. He initially worked with Briton Chadwick in Wymondham but then moved on to Moseley Stone and later Stanley Tools.

He was extremely knowledgeable about brushmaking and the history of brushes. He wrote a book in 1974 entitled “The Story of Brushmaking – a Norfolk Craft”, to accompany an exhibition that year at Strangers’ Hall, Norwich.

Mervyn died in January 2023. The collection was kindly donated to the museum by his children Rachel Scandling, Sarah Jones and Ben Jones.

To see the new collections in the Brushroom, the museum is open daily. More information at wymondhamheritagemuseum.co.uk.

*From April 27th and every third Saturday when there is a Farmers’ Market, the museum will have extended opening hours, 10am-4pm.