Collections
Civil War Armour
RAMM is very fortunate in having a sizeable collection of armour that had been stored in Rougemont Castle and used in the defence of Exeter during the English Civil War. I have the interesting job of researching and developing a treatment strategy for the whole collection.
The armour is an assortment mainly of munitions grade helmets, gorgets, backplates and breastplates. A lot of these items date from the 16th. century and the time of the Spanish Armada and so would have been quite old when last used in the 1640s. Some items can be attributed to the Greenwich Armoury and some may have been captured from the Spanish.
During its active life the armour would have been treated and mistreated, repaired and altered. After the Civil War and with the development of firearms in the 17th C. the armour became obsolete and was displayed on the chapel wall in Rougemont Castle.
Originally all the pieces would have been lined with leather and fabric but this has rotted away and all that is now left to show this are the small sometimes decorative brass rivets around the edges.
Some pieces have suffered more than others and most of the armour has been coated with a black bituminous paint in an attempt to protect it.
The armour redisplay has provided the opportunity conserve it properly so as to maintain its long-term survival and to study it in greater detail to learn more of its manufacture and history.
After various tests and discussions with curators and other conservators it was decided to leave the black coating in place on most of the pieces and only surface clean them. Some distorted areas have been reshaped to prevent further damage and a few small fixings have been remade to enable the parts to hold together safely.
The treatment that the armour has had and the conditions that it is now going to be displayed in will prevent the corrosion from continuing.
On one helmet, a cabasset, bands of decoration could be seen underneath the thick black coating. This has been carefully removed to reveal the fine etched pattern. The metal surfaces were then coated with a protective layer of microcrystalline wax.
