Stefanie Vincent, 32, is Collections Project Manager for Swindon Museum and Art Gallery. She heads a project examining and cataloguing the archive, much of which is in storage because of limited display space. Stefanie lives with partner Chris Leonard, an archaeologist

SOME people are fortunate enough to have a job which is also a passion.

Stefanie Vincent is among them.

“The history of Swindon is so exciting. I do think people have a tendency to think that, pre-railway, there isn’t very much going on in Swindon. I think we need to dispel that myth because it’s not true.

“It’s really important to understand how you’ve got where you are today.

“Something like the British Museum lets you put yourself in the context of the entire world, but it’s no less important locally.

“I think it’s about connecting with the place you live in, having pride in the place you live in. To understand that Swindon has developed as a town because of its rich history is very important.

“As an example, Swindon has a lot of Roman archaeology, which a lot of people don’t know about. I think that’s because we’re relatively used to hearing about big military centres like Cirencester, like Bath.

“Swindon is not a massive Roman military centre, but it is very interesting. It’s different to the things that surround us, and you start to question why is that.

“There’s evidence from some of the sites that it was more of a production area, so we’re starting to think about pottery production, medium-sized farming enterprises, that kind of thing.

“Then if you follow that through, it goes through to the canals, which again were about linking Swindon, to take things out to the rest of the world.

“They were then followed by the railway, obviously, again to link things and take things out to the rest of the world, and then you start talking about the more modern era production period of Swindon.

“That is what Swindon is really good at – producing good things to send out to the rest of the world. You start to see it wasn’t just, ‘Oh, let’s put the trains there,’ and Swindon began at that point. There were other factors getting to that.

“I just think that’s so exciting and so important for people in Swindon to know, really.”

Stefanie is originally from Silksworth in Sunderland. Her father is a joiner and her mother runs a women’s education charity. Stefanie is the eldest of three sisters and attended the local comprehensive school and sixth form college

“I wanted to be an archaeologist. I think I must have been about seven or eight when I decided. I read a lot of books about dinosaurs.

“I guess dinosaurs draw you in quite a lot, but then I became more interested in the way that archaeology worked. It’s analytical.”

A forensic science degree at the University of Central Lancashire was followed by a Masters in paleopathology — her thesis was about the presence or otherwise of physical evidence of child abuse in the archaeological record from skeletal remains.

Stefanie worked as a field archaeologist and bone specialist before moving into the museum sector, and came to Swindon from Salisbury Museum last August.

The project she leads here is backed by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

“Like any museum we have more material than we can display at any one time. What you can see when you walk into a museum is only a percentage of what’s in store.

“What happens is that often the things that are in store maybe get a little less attention or a little less love than the things which are out a lot. To continually change exhibitions takes a lot of staff time and museums are notoriously cash-strapped and understaffed. What this project is doing is allowing us to go through our stores and really focus on things that have become a little bit forgotten about.

“One of the important things to know about stored collections is that museums aren’t just designed to keep things in. They’re really to engage the public, especially local museum collections. What you really want to do is to be connecting local communities with their history.”

The stored collection is varied to say the least. There are natural history exhibits including a pair of stuffed Egyptian vultures. Such objects were common in museums at a time long before nature documentaries.

There is the recently-rediscovered Swindon Baptist Band of Hope banner from 1882, whose colours remain vivid.

“One of the objects I really like,” said Stefanie, “is a piece of a bomb which was dropped on the gasworks during World War Two. In itself that’s a good story, but it’s engraved on the side with the time and date and exactly where it fell.

“I think that links you in more to the event. It’s one thing knowing in quite a theoretical way, I suppose, but when you find something like that it really brings it closer to home.

“Another object is something that was donated relatively recently. It’s a wedding dress from World War Two and it belonged to the donor’s mother.

“It’s just a fabulous piece of costume, but the stories behind it – because he was able to give it context, that’s in a lot of ways what makes an object.

“Once you can really contextualise an object, you find that that’s what really makes it exciting.”

There is also about 300 pieces of art dating back to the 1940s depicting scenes from Swindon. Stefanie’s personal favourite object is currently on display. It is the Highworth Pot – a huge Roman clay jar found in 2008.

Stefanie is delighted not only by the collection but also by the work of her team, which includes volunteers.

“I’ve been struck by the level of potential and the keenness of people to get involved.”

Stefanie is resolutely behind the campaign to secure a new museum and art gallery, which suffered a recent setback when a bid for Lottery funding was unsuccessful.

“The history of Swindon deserves to be told in a more cohesive way and a more accessible way, which will be doable in a larger venue.

“Why shouldn’t we have that here? Other towns with a similar history do. It’s really within our grasp to have that and I think we deserve that.”