We’ve had to extend our geographical boundaries a little to embrace this exhibit as it comes from Antartctica. The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) has its roots in Operation Tabarin, a secret World War II mission to deny enemy ships access to Antarctic waters. There was a scientific element which continued after the war, ultimately becoming the British Antarctic Survey.

From the outset in 1945, BAS scientists used dogs to pull their sledges around on the ice and the item we have here in the collection is a sledging box, which would have held cooking equipment and food for the journey – it was also handy for a seat as we can see in the photo opposite. The box would have been just one item from the huge amount of equipment which was carefully stacked on a Nansen Sledge and pulled by a team of huskies. This box was kindly donated by Rod Pashley who worked his sledge down in Antarctica back in the 1970s. Sadly for Rod, and many others, BAS stopped using dogs in Antarctica in 1994 for environmental reasons!

We should perhaps add that Rod made the box himself – the lining is tarred paper. The box is currently back with od Pashley (October 2026).