Meeting of the Gardeners of Eden on 3rd April 2012

We were excited at the prospect of a talk about our native wild orchids, but our speaker didn’t appear. As it happened, we had a new member, John Rayment with us who very bravely and kindly offered to give us a talk about the Lancashire County Museums. John has recently retired from his position as curator of the museums, and gave us a wonderful overview of the 12 sites in Lancashire which house the county’s museums.

Two of the museums are country houses with gardens, a good place to start when talking to gardeners! Turton Tower, near Bolton began as a Pele Tower in the 13th century and has had Tudor additions with a farm house and Dutch influences too. The grounds are mainly woodland walks with lawns and some easily maintained floral beds.

Gawthorpe Hall in Padiham was also originally a Pele Tower. The house was redesigned in1850 by Sir Charles Barry (who later designed the Houses of Parliament). Charlotte Bronte is known to have spent time here. There is a rose garden and a parterre.  The property has been in the hands of the Kay-Shuttleworth family  from the 1600’s until 1970 when it was given to The National Trust. It holds the Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth Collection of textiles.

John told us that at one time he had an office at Gawthorpe, the best office in beautiful and spacious surroundings, but possibly a little lonely in the winter. One day he saw a Roundhead arriving on horseback! He thought he was seeing things or losing his mind. He looked again, and sure enough, this Roundhead was real. He turned out to be a dedicated re-enactor who, every year, followed the route of a character from history who had fought a battle at Clitheroe!

The Judges Lodgings Museum is the oldest town house in Lancaster. It is where judges presiding at the courts in Lancaster Castle, just behind, would have stayed; including those who presided over the Pendle witches trials! The house now contains the leading collection of Gillow furniture, Gillow having been a leading Lancashire furniture maker. Upstairs there is a childhood collection.

There are two maritime museums. In Lancaster, the Old Customs House is the Maritime and City Museum and houses material from Lancaster’s maritime heritage including a few vessels; and portrays the history of the city going back to Roman time.

The other maritime museum is at Fleetwood and houses material connected with the fishing industry, including a sailing trawler brought from Millom to the museum at great expense. The flora and fauna of the coast are also displayed here.

At Bolton there are two museums with working collections of national importance in situ. Helmshore Textile Museum and Queen Street Museum are concerned with the wool and cotton industries. At Helmshore there is a working water wheel which drives the fulling stocks. This machine hammers the new woollen fabric in vats of aged urine, called “lant” to shrink it and bring the fibres together.  Lant was collected from local residents and workers. It is said that a premium was paid for lant from Methodist households as it was deemed purer with no alcohol content! In 1999 a bicentenary display was held called ‘Fleece to Fabric’ featuring hand spinners and loom weavers with fulling and finishing methods being shown. John told us that the workforce had to be threatened and forced to supply quantities of lant! After all these processes the finished cloth was stretched on ‘tenterhooks’ on ‘tenter frames’ in the fields nearby to dry.

Queen Street Museum has a unique collection of machinery that was used in the cotton industry.

These old buildings are often used in film sets for series such as ‘Sharpe”, which brings in useful revenue.

John told us an interesting story about one magistrate who sentenced two spinners for spinning too thickly! Obviously the company would lose money if the yarn used too much fleece. A petition was raised in support of the spinners and the petitioners were punished by having their home gas supply (produced at the mill) cut off!

John told us how maintenance and conservation is always a problem. The team has to find 50% of its operating costs and manages this by working on external contracts. The specialist conservators work in studios at The Museum of Lancashire at St. Mary’s Church in Preston. Work is undertaken to repair and conserve paintings, sculpture, ceramics, paper and textiles. The studios are open for the public by arrangement to observe the work in progress.

Clitheroe Castle is also one of Lancashire’s museums. It has an interesting history, having been both a court and a prison before it’s current role as shire hall and museum.

The gardening club extends its grateful thanks to John for filling the breech so willingly at the last moment, and delivering such an interesting talk. I am sure that some of us will be looking forward to visiting some of Lancashire’s museums in the future.