Museums

A Working Steam Driven Cotton Mill – History Alive

July 9, 2013

Personal Note:Regular visitors will have noticed the lack of new articles recently. Shortly after this one was published I suffered the first of a series of mini-strokes. Although there is no permanent brain damage it became very apparent that I was seriously overworking. I’m planning to keep “Around-England” and other sites going but there will […]

Across the North: From Grasmere to The Yorkshire Olympians

August 8, 2012

Who thinks that the Lake District is behind the times? Well, the people at the Wordsworth Museum in Grasmere have shown once again that it's up with the best. New app marks a world first for a museum Dove Cottage and the Wordsworth Museum in Grasmere, the Lake District, has marked a world first for […]

Towneley Hall, Burnley

April 18, 2012

Towneley Hall, Burnley was built over many centuries, from the early-15th to the 19th, as home to the Towneley family. Historically, although many have been eminent public servants, the most famous member of the family was possibly Charles Towneley, the 18th century collector whose marbles and brasses form an important part of collections at the […]

Barnard Castle and the Bowes Museum

February 7, 2012

Last weekend we paid an unscheduled visit to Barnard Castle. Our normal pattern when driving over the A66 between Cumbria and County Durham has been to fly past at 60 to 70 miles per hour on the way to or from somewhere or other. This time, however, a glance at the fuel gauge said quite […]

The Dales in the Damp

September 3, 2011

This morning, looking in any direction from my home in the Eden Valley it seemed clear (although actually it’s ‘misty’ and unclear in a literal sense) that whether to the north (The North Pennines), to the west (The Lake District) or to the south-east (The Yorkshire Dales) it was quite probable that people were going […]

What to do in Keswick … Indoors.

July 19, 2011

Keswick is a marvellous centre for Lake District outdoor pursuits, but also there are things to do and to see under the cover of a roof. Today, following a morning at the Keswick Convention, I walked past three very interesting places (well, more really, but I’ll mention three) all very close to the centre of […]

The National Coal Mining Museum

February 22, 2011

Driving down the M1 south of Leeds I’ve often noticed the signs for the National Coal Mining Museum but until today had never taken the time to investigate. My wife and I were driving home from North Yorkshire and had nothing else planned so thought we’d take a look. We were not disappointed. The main […]

The Ruskin Museum, Coniston

December 28, 2009

The Ruskin Museum has developed considerably over the years that I have known it. Nowadays it covers a wide range of local themes and deals extensively with the lives of two great men, from very different spheres of activity, associated with Coniston in the English Lake District. John Ruskin, the eminent nineteenth century literary and […]

Four seriously damp but totally delightful days among the English Lakes

August 11, 2008

I hesitated before starting to write this. After all, why should anyone else be interested in a record of how my wife and I spent a few days in the Lake District. We’d driven north to look after grandchildren for a few days, then there was a gap before I had to be north again […]