Cumbria Museums

Learn about the local history, industry and culture of Lakeland & Cumbria – Make a visit to a local Museum part of your trip. Below are a selection of popular museums in and around the Lake District.

	The Beacon West Strand, Whitehaven, Cumbria CA28 7LY Tel:0845 0952131
New & Interactive - the Beacon introduces you to the fascinating history of Copeland, the area bordering the North West of the Lake District on the Cumbrian Coast. More Info
	Keswick Museum & Art Gallery Station Rd, Keswick, Cumbria CA12 4NF Tel:017687 73263
The Museum tells the story of Keswick and the surrounding area. Keswick has a unique history, with lots of 'firsts', including the first pencils, some very famous residents, and lots of beautiful scenery so awe inspiring that early tourists were left terrified. More Info
	Maryport Martime Museum 1, Senhouse St, Maryport, Cumbria CA15 6AB Tel:01900 813738
The Museum houses a wealth of objects, pictures, models and paintings that illustrate Maryport's proud maritime and painting tradition. More Info
	The Roman Army Museum Carvoran, Greenhead, Brampton, Cumbria CA8 7JB Tel:016977 47485
The Roman Army Museum, situated beside one of the best preserved sections of the Wall, offers a captivating insight into the garrisons of Hadrian's Wall More Info
	Kings Own Royal Border Regimental Museum Queen Marys Tower, Carlisle Castle, Carlisle, Cumbria CA3 8UR Tel:01228 532774
Based in Historic Carlisle Castle. Two floors of displays tell the history of the Regiment from 1702 to the present day. More Info
	Penrith Museum Robinsons School, Middlegate, Penrith, Cumbria CA11 7PT Tel:01768 865105
Explore the history, geology and archaeology of Penrith and the Eden Valley. Exhibits include pottery from the Roman fort near Plumpton and prehistoric 'cup and ring' stones from Little Meg Stone Circle. More Info
	Keswick Mining Museum Otley House, Otley Rd, Keswick, Cumbria CA12 5LE Tel:017687 80055
Situated in the centre of Keswick this was the first mining museum to be established in Cumbria and it hosts the finest collection of mining memorabilia in the country. More Info
	Millom Folk Museum Old Station Building, Station Rd, Millom, Cumbria LA18 5AA Tel:01229 772555
A journey into the past of Millom a former mining town in west Cumbria. More Info
	RAF Millom Museum Ltd Unit 2, Devonshire Rd Industrial Estate, Millom, Cumbria LA18 4JS Tel:01229 777446
RAF and military museum based in Millom, West Cumbria. More Info
	Alice's Wonderland 1, Long Lane, Carlisle, Cumbria CA3 8TA Tel:01228 548576
Alice's Wonderland is the original and private collection of Dolls, Dolls' Houses, Miniatura, Teddy Bears and soft toys belonging to Margaret Alice Blackwell. More Info
	Kendal Museum of Natural History & Archaeology Station Rd, Kendal, Cumbria LA9 6BT Tel:01539 721374
Founded in 1796, Kendal Museum's fascinating collections include local archaeology, history, geology and a natural history collection from around the globe. More Info
	Lakeland Motor Museum Holker Hall, Cark in Cartmel, Grange-Over-Sands, Cumbria LA11 7PL Tel:015395 58509
Over 30,000 motoring related exhibits including many reminiscent rarities, tastefully presented in a rather quaint former Shire Horse Stables and courtyard setting. More Info
	Dove Cottage & The Wordsworth Museum Town End, Grasmere, Ambleside, Cumbria LA22 9SH Tel:015394 35544
The home of William Wordsworth from 1799 to 1808 considered to be the golden decade when he wrote his greatest poetry. More Info
	Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery Castle St, Carlisle, Cumbria CA3 8TP Tel:01228 618718
one of the major museums of the North. Artefacts, tableaux and interactive displays bring Cumberland and Carlisle's past to life: natural history, the railways, Jacobites, Border Reivers and, of course, the Roman city of Luguvalium (Carlisle) and Hadrian's Wall. More Info
	Solway Aviation Museum Carlisle Airport, Carlisle, Cumbria CA6 4NW Tel:01228 573823
Home to a collection of aircraft reflecting Britain's position as world leader in aircraft design and innovation at the dawn of the jet age. More Info
	Cumberland Pencil Museum Southey Works, Main St, Keswick, Cumbria CA12 5NG Tel:017687 73626
Through words, pictures and carefully restored machinery you can trace the history of pencil making and see how Derwent Fine Art Pencils are made today. More Info
	Haig Colliery Mining Museum Solway Rd, Kells, Whitehaven, Cumbria CA28 9BG Tel:01946 599949
Museum of the Haig Mine in Whitehaven. Mining in the area dates back to the thirteenth century when the monks from St Bees Abbey supervised the opening of coal mines at Arrowthwaite. More Info
	The Dock Museum North Rd, Barrow-In-Furness, Cumbria LA14 2PW Tel:01229 876400
A modern museum built over an original Victorian Graving Dock, were one can explore the fascinating history of Barrow-in-Furness. More Info
	Senhouse Roman Museum The Battery, Sea Brows, Maryport, Cumbria CA15 6JD Tel:01900 816168
The Museum is home to the oldest collection of Roman artefacts in Britain, and adjacent to the remains of a Roman Fort More Info
	Laurel & Hardy Museum 4c, Upper Brook St, Ulverston, Cumbria LA12 7BH Tel:01229 582292
Devoted to Laurel & Hardy in Ulverston, the town where Stan was born on 16th June 1890. More Info
	Ruskin Museum Yewdale Rd, Coniston, Cumbria LA21 8DU Tel:015394 41164
Displays on John Ruskin, Donald Campbell, coppermines, slate, geology, lace, and much more. More Info

Castlerigg Stone Circle

photo by binaryape

Castlerigg Stone Circle, also known as Keswick Carles, Carles, Carsles or Castle-rig near Keswick is one of the most visually impressive prehistoric monuments in Britain and as such is the most visited stone circle in Cumbria. Each year, thousands upon thousands of people make the short journey from Keswick to the plateau of Castlerigg Fell and to Chestnut Hill, on which the monument stands. The plateau forms the raised centre of a natural amphitheatre created by the surrounding fells and from within the circle it is possible to see four of the five tallest peaks in Cumbria, namely, Helvellyn, Skiddaw, Grasmoor and Blencathra.

The stones are made of local metamorphic slate, set in a flattened circle, measuring 107ft (32.6m) at the widest point and 97ft (29.5m) at the narrowest. The heaviest stone has been estimated to weigh in at around 16 tons and the tallest stone measures approximately 2.3m high. There is a 3.3m wide gap in the northern edge, which may once have been an entrance.
Within the circle, abutting the eastern quadrant, is a roughly rectangular setting of a further 10 stones. The circle is thought to have been constructed around 3200 BC, the late Neolithic/early Bronze-Age, making it possibly one of the earliest stone circles in Britain and quite likely Europe, too.

It is important to archaeo-astronomers who have noted that the sunrise during the Autumn equinox appears above the top of Threlkeld Knott, a hill some 3.5km's to the east. Various stones in the circle have been aligned with the midwinter sunrise and various other lunar positions.

There is an old saying that it is impossible to count the number of stones within Castlerigg as each attempt will result in a different answer. This may not be far from the truth. As a result of erosion of the soil around the stones, caused by the large number of visitors to the monument, several smaller stones have 'appeared' next to some of the larger stones. As these stones are so small, they are likely to have been packing stones used to support the larger stones when the circle was constructed and would originally have been buried. Differences in opinion as to the exact number of stones within Castlerigg are usually down to whether the observer counts these small packing stones, or not.As a result some count 38 and others 42. The Natural Trust information board at the site elects for a total of 40, satisfying both camps !

Despite many informed guesses it is not known for sure what was the driving motivation behind the building of Castlerigg, its use after construction or indeed whether or not this changed over the following years.

The most recent thinking is that Castlerigg was directly linked with the Neolithic greenstone Langdale axe industry carried out in the nearby fells of Langdale and that the circle acted as a meeting place where axes were both traded and bought.

Ritually deposited stone axes are frequently found all over the United Kingdom, leading to the conclusion that their use went far beyond their mundane practical capabilities. As a result of this, any exchange or trading of stone axes may not have been possible without first taking part in a ritual or ceremony. Castlerigg stone circle may well have been the space where such ceremonies took place.

Source: Wikipedia - under the GNU Free Doc Licence

Brantwood House

Photo from Wikimedia

With views over Coniston Water, the house of Brantwood in Cumbria has been the residence of many notable people including John Ruskin. The house itself is now a museum to John Ruskin and together with the grounds are controlled by a charitable trust.

The word BRANT is derived from an ancient Norse word generally meaning steep, and as such Brantwood House is sited on a hilly wooded area looking out over the lake. Even before the house was built the location was deemed as essential to see by visitors dating back to the eighteenthcentury. Thomas Woodville was accredited with building the first house, of between six and eight rooms, on the site towards the end of the eighteenth century. It was not until the eighteen thirties, after various owners, that the grounds and house were enlarged.

By the mid eighteen hundreds, the father of Charles Hudson, Josiah was resident at Brantwood. He was a staunch Anglican priest and also keen mountaineer.

The next owner of renown was William James Linton who acquired the property in 1853 after moving in to the house the year before, and, who was noted as a poet, artist, wood engraver and active social reformer.

Linton went to live in London in 1858, staying there until 1864 and during that period the tenant was the poet and Egyptoligist Gerald Massey.

Linton moved back to Brantwood to live for a further three years before emigrating to the US whereupon he sold the house in 1871 to John Ruskin, who at that stage had not even seen the property. Prior to moving in to Brantwod in 1872, Ruskin arranged extensive refurbishment of the property including additions of both a turret and lodge, the latter to be utilised by his valet and his family. At the same time many improvements were carried out to the gardens.

During his period of residence at Brantwood, Ruskin held, what became known as teaching seminars three times per week. Art, literature and sociology were the subjects of study and in his absence a former student, Richard Hosken, held the classes.

An avid art collector, Ruskin filled Brantwood, with paintings from amongst others, Gainsborough, Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites and an extensive collection ofminerals, pottery and sea shells. A little later the artist Arthur Severn and his wife Joan Agnew, his cousin and their expanding family joined Ruskin at Brantwood.

A close neighbour, William G. Collingwood, archeologist, painter and translator of Nordic and North Germanic languages, was a frequent visitor to the house .

During the late eighteen seventies a new dining room was built at the southern end of the house followed by a second storey around 1890. This extra floor was built to house the Severn family and additionally a studio was added to the back of the house for Arthur Severn to use. The estate also increased in size at this time.

Ruskin died in 1900 and the house and grounds passed to the Severn family. A condition of Ruskin's will was that the house be open to the public for thirty days annually to allow vistors to appreciate both the house and his collection. Regretfully, the Severn family did not comply with this request and sold many of the more valuable paintings.

Arthur Severn passed away in 1931 and the remaining contents were disposed of at auction. John Howard Whitehouse, the founder of Bembridge School and the Ruskin Society of Birmingham bought Brantwood and subsequently secured its future for the nation.

It was he that established the Brantwood Trust in the early nineteen fifties to look after the property for posterity.

Various of the rooms which the public are allowed access to are the drawing room ( still with Ruskin's secretaire en portefeuille in place), study (complete with a Samuel Prout painting) and dining room with its outlook over Coniston mountains through lancet windows. It is also possible to access Ruskin's bedroom in the turret extension.

In the gardens Ruskin experimented in various forms of innovative cultivation and drainage and as such there are many steep and winding paths. When he passed away ornamental shrubs and trees were added to the estate. Regretfully the area became overgrown until restoration started again in the ninetten eighties. In total the estate covers some 250 acres including lake shore, oak woods, pasture and moorland.

Further Information:

Brantwood
Coniston
Cumbria
LA21 8AD

http://www.brantwood.org.uk/

Source: Wikipedia - under the GNU Free Doc Licence