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Lancashire County Council Museum Service was established in 1972, partly as a result of the national reorganisation of County boundaries which was due to take effect in Spring 1974. This reorganisation resulted in many of the major metropolitan areas of Lancashire (Manchester, Liverpool, Rochdale etc.) becoming independent Metropolitan Boroughs leaving a core county of Lancashire approximately 70% of which covered rural communities. Lancashire County Council, through its Library Department, created a countywide museum service to ensure the history and heritage of the post 1974 county was collected and interpreted for its citizens. Initially based at Lancashire Library Headquarters in Preston the original staff team of four worked to collect material specifically relating to all aspects of the history and heritage of Lancashire with a particular emphasis on agricultural and rural life to reflect the make-up of the new Lancashire. Initially its collections were predominately from private donations or were amalgamations of objects collected by local history groups or town halls. In 1974 it opened its first museum site to the public when it took over the operation of Fleetwood Museum. This was housed in a room in the then Fleetwood Library building (the former Whitworth Institute) where it remained until 1990 when it moved to the old Fleetwood Town Hall building.

The Museum Service administers a number museums, historic and archaeological sites covering collections from a broad range of disciplines. Several historic houses and buildings sites were transferred to the County Council as the industries they housed closed production or were no longer used. These included, Judges’ Lodgings and Helmshore Mills. Over the past 45 years a number of museums which LCCMS owned/ managed have been transferred to other local authorities or organisations, eg Turton Tower, the Grundy Art Gallery, Lancaster City Museums, Rossendale Museum.

Chronologically they are:

Fleetwood Museum (taken over in 1974) now occupies the Old Custom House, designed by the important Victorian Architect Decimus Burton, The collection is centred around the development of the new town of Fleetwood dating from 1840’s and the history and operation of deep sea and inshore fishing industries.

In 2018 the operation of Fleetwood Museum transferred to the independant Fleetwood Museum Trust. The collections displayed and stored at Fleetwood Museum are on loan to this Trust.

The Judges’ Lodgings Museum, Lancaster (opened 1976). This is the oldest Georgian Townhouse in continuous use in Lancaster and is built on the core of an earlier Tudor home. Thomas Covell the Lancashire Witches Trial (1612) judge lived in this tudor house. From the early 19^th century the house was used as the residence for the Circuit Court Judges up until 1975. Today it houses one of the best collections of furniture designed and created by Robert Gillow & Sons the famous Georgian cabinet-making firm of Lancaster. The second floor of the house holds the Museum of Childhood.

Museum of the Lancashire Textile Industry – Designated Collections

Based at three mill sites in Helmshore and Burnley with additional material deposited at the Lancashire Archives in Preston.

Helmshore Mills Textile Museum covers two textile mills, their associated outbuildings and mill ponds. They are both working museums where the original machinery is operated to tell the story of the Lancashire Textile Industry.

Higher Mill, (built 1789) is the older and is a waterpower wool cloth finishing mill with its original fulling stocks. Commercial production ceased at the mill in 1968 and the site was immediately listed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Saved by a local action group it has been owned by the Higher Mill Museum Trust since 1970 and has been managed since 1975 by LCCMS on a 99 year lease. Apart from the original machinery, it houses nationally important collections relating to the textile industry. Joined to this mill by a link building is the second mill.

Whitaker’s Mill, (built about 1828) has been a cotton spinning mill from the 1920’s to 1978 and contains much of the original machinery relating to the preparation and spinning of cotton. Commercial production stopped at Christmas 1978 and by Autumn 1979 it had been purchased by Lancashire County Council as a heritage operation. Apart from the working machinery there are also galleries showing the development of the textile industry in the North West.

Queen Street Mill Textile Museum in Burnley has been owned and operated by LCCMS since 1992. It was previously operated by Pendle Heritage who rented the building from Burnley Borough Council. The site was a working nineteenth-century steam-powered weaving mill (built 1895), with an important collection of textile machinery. The weaving shed still contains 308 nineteenth century Lancashire looms as they were when the commercial working ceased in the early 1980’s. There were over 800 looms on the site when it closed in 1982. Today these looms are still driven by the original tandem compound 500HP steam engine named “Peace.” It is believed to be the only surviving steam powered textile mill in the world.

Museum of Lancashire, previously the County & Regimental Museum (founded 1987), is based in the former County Court House in Preston. In 2011 it reopened after a major redevelopment and its galleries highlighted themes relating to the history and culture of Lancashire. It aimed to give an overview of Lancashire Heritage and persuade visitors to go to other museums and historic sites in the County. Since 2016 access has been limited to schools and pre-booked parties. This building is part of the Preston Museum HQ site.

Museum HQ (1978) & Lancashire Conservation Studios (2007)

Lancashire Council County Museum Service has maintained centralised specialised services and stores to support its operation across the County. Based in Preston in the original (1890s/ 1930s) Territorial Army HQ building adjacent to the Museum of Lancashire it houses our research collections and Curatorial Team. The Team provide access to our collections and respond to public and organisational enquiries. Behind the Headquarters sites is the 1836 Church of St Mary’s which was converted into the Lancashire Conservation Studios opening in 2007. This grade 2 listed building houses the specialist conservation service which supports both LCCMS museums and other museums, heritage bodies, and private individuals through the provision of practical, preventative conservation as well as workforce development and training for staff and volunteers. The building is open to the public via pre-booked tours and a number of special events throughout the year.

Lancashire County Council Museum Service is also responsible for:

Clitheroe Castle – Owned by Ribble Valley Borough Council but managed and operated by LCCMS, the museum Situated in the Steward’s House adjacent to the late medieval keep. The collections were based on a core collection created by Clitheroe Local History Society in the 1930s which was transferred to the Town Hall. There are major geological collections associated with the museum because the Ribble Valley has important geological formations within the borough. The museum has been managed and operated by LCCMS since 1976.

Ribchester Roman Bathhouse

The bath-house at Ribchester (Roman Bremetennacum) was built in about AD 100. It was designed to serve the needs of the soldiers garrisoned in the nearby fort and later for the local civilian population. It was excavated in 1978 with information boards explaining the site. This is a free to access site.

Gawthorpe Hall – Owned by the National Trust but leased to Lancashire County Council in 1972 to be used as a teaching resource centre for Nelson & Colne College. This Further Education usage ceased in c.1994 when it was turned into a historic house visitor attraction centred around the previous owners, The Shuttleworth family. The house is managed and operated by LCCMS who liase with the independent Gawthorpe Textile Collection Trust, and the National Trust to provide a full visitor experience of the hall, grounds and the collections, gathered by Miss Rachel Kay Shuttleworth, one of the last family residents to live in the hall.

Lancaster Castle

Owned by the monarch and managed on her behalf by The Duchy of Lancaster. Down the years it has been managed by a number of agencies including The Prison Service, The Court Service , and Lancashire County Council. Lancaster Castle is housed in an impressive Grade 1 listed building constructed in various phases from C.1150 to 1821. Much of the site was used as a prison until 2011. Today it is still used for a limited range of trials and courts, public access is by guided tours operated by LCCMS, and limited self guided access. Three main areas of interest are covered by the museum and its collections: The history and development of Lancaster Castle; The history and development of crime and punishment / law and order; and the events leading up to and the story behind the trials of the Lancashire Witches in C17th. Though LCC had had a lease with the Duchy for many years its heritage element has only been LCCMS has jointly operated at this site since 2004.

Scarisbrick Hall Collections

Scarisbrick Hall was remodelled by Augustus Pugin and is one of the finest examples of Neo Gothic architecture in the UK. It is in private ownership but in December 1963 LCC obtained a Building Preservation Order to stop the removal of internal fittings and works of art. Subsequently on 3^rd December 1965 a Purchase Order was served on the County Council and in 1969 following payment of £5,500 a number of example of 16^th & 17^th Century works of art and complete panelled interiors became the property of the County Council. These works of art remain in Situ, and cannot be removed from the building.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2019

Licence: CC BY-NC

Archaeology

The collection comprises some 50,000 archaeological items from the Prehistoric period to the 17th Century. The material includes pottery, bone, metal, wood, glass and human remains.

There are some individual finds of Prehistoric and later date but the majority of the collection consists of about 20 excavation archives from sites investigated in Lancashire during the past 60 years.

In recent years the number of items discovered by metal-detector users has increased and the Portable Antiquities Scheme has generated a small number of more significant items including pieces purchased under the Treasure Act, such as the Silverdale Hoard. There are a number of smaller assemblages within the archaeology collection that hold much significance in relation to research and display potential. Of particular importance is the excavation archive from the Ribchester

Roman Bathhouse excavated in 1978. LCCMS manages the Ribchester Roman Bathouse site as a ‘free to access’ archaeological site. In addition, there is Roman and Medieval material from Ribchester, Walton-Le-Dale and Kirkham, and Bronze Age remains from the Ribble Valley. Limited scientific study has been conducted on these collections and there is further potential to research and publish material on these excavations.

Art

There is a fine art collection of c.400 items which include a number of nationally important works of fine art. These have been acquired, with the generous assistance of the Art Fund, the Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund, the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the National Heritage Lottery Fund.

These include works by Gheeraerts the Younger, Joseph Wright of Derby, Arthur Devis, Sir Thomas Lawrence, George Morland, Thomas Rowlandson, JB Guillaumin, Reverand John Louis Petit. The collections are in a variety of media although they are concentrated in oil, watercolour, and pen and ink. Among the portraits is a painting of John Braddyll of Portfield and Whalley, c.1590 by Robert Peake. Also notable is a portrait of Sir William ffaryngton of Worden Hall, Leyland, Lancashire, 1593, by Marcus Gheeraerts the younger.

Of significance are paintings which record all aspects of the fishing industry, the port of Fleetwood, its trawlers, and local topographical landmarks. These include a fine series of paintings by Tom Roskell, a former skipper, of work on board the vessels and in port. Of particular importance is a painting of Mussel Gatherers at Sunderland Point, c.1905, by William Page Atkinson Wells, which depicts the traditional local occupation of mussel gathering on the Lancashire coast. Also significant is a View of Fleetwood, painted in 1842 by Francis English, an artist working for Decimus Burton, who was the architect of Fleetwood new town. This watercolour shows the Fleetwood sea front as intended.

The Judges’ Lodgings Museum, Lancaster, holds a fine collection of works of fine art, including the Holt, Hewlett and Millbank collections, which are used to furnish the period rooms of the house. Of particular importance is a group of Impressionist works from the Hewlett Bequest, two of which La Creuse a Genetin, c.1880, and Les Dunes de la Covarde, Ile de Re, 1892, are by Jean Baptiste Armand Guillaumin. Only 7 works by this artist are held in public collections in the UK. Other notable portraits include Joseph Farington, RA, 1794-1796, by Sir Thomas Lawrence; Mrs Jane Hardman of Rochdale and Allerton Hall, 1769, by Joseph Wright of Derby; and Abraham Rawlinson, 1738–1803, by George Romney. In addition, the collection includes two paintings by Arthur Devis, a very early landscape, View of Hornby Hall and Castle, c. 1736, and a very late work, Squire ffrance of Rawcliffe Hall, c.1768 – 1772, of a type by the artist described by Horace Walpole as “a new species of painting behind glass”.

A few works of art are important in the context of the history of the textile industry and our Designated Textile Collections. There is a particularly fine head and shoulders portrait of Sir Richard Arkwright, 1790, inventor of the ‘Water Frame’, painted by Joseph Wright of Derby. Also worthy of mention are two views of early Industrial premises concerned with printing and dyeing of textiles, Broad Oak Printworks, near Accrington, c.1827, and Bury from Blackford Bridge, 1833, both painted by William Linton, who was himself an authority on the chemistry of pigments used in printing and dyeing cloth.

There is a small collection of approximately 25-30 late 20th century paintings by Lancashire artists, including amateur artists.

Decorative Art

The decorative art collection includes a nationally important group of about 100 pieces of Gillow furniture dating from 1778 to 1905 Combined with approximately 25 other examples of outstanding furniture date from c.1660 to 1900.

Alongside the collection of commemorative ceramics relating to Lancashire – there is a small collection of fine, decorative ceramics from the major porcelain factories. Some items are from the Holt Bequest which highlight the quality of goods which were used by the Georgian merchant classes in Lancaster and in the great houses of Lancashire.

Metalwork collections are small and include commemorative and civic items, Georgian silver and several contemporary commissions. Of note are silver items for the Judges’ dining table including two candelabra, a silver cutlery service with the crest of the Tyldesley family,(1833-35), a silver cup and cover (1791), by John Robins.

There is also a small collections of bronze, marble and wooden sculptures and long case and bracket clocks on display in a number of our sites. A number of these items were created by local individuals linking these skills in the decorative arts to the work of major cabinet makers such as Gillow & Sons of Lancaster, and our extensive collections of trade tools.

In addition to the more historic collections, a small collection of ‘contemporary crafts’ produced by Lancashire makers has been formed over the last 25 years.

Some 400 documents and photographs relating to the Gillow manufactory and other documents relating to groups of drawings are included in the collection.

There is an associated collection of sculptural works of Flemish artists and Neogothic furnishings at Scarisbrick Hall.

Industry

Industry (Farming and Horticulture)

Local collecting from 1973 covers hill farming in East Lancashire, crop production and market gardening in West Lancashire and of dairy farming across the county but particularly in the Ribble Valley. These collection areas provide an understanding of the local rural economy before the development of Lancashire’s main post-industrial manufacturers; and represent the 70% of Lancashire landmass which in 1974 as now is covered by farming and agricultural usage.

This collection of approx. 3,000 items is most representative of late 19th and early 20th century Lancashire. It covers both arable and pastoral farming, from horsepower through to mechanisation. Significant objects include an Albion reaper-binder, a Clayton and Shuttleworth threshing machine, a Fordson Standard tractor, horse drawn ploughs, barn machinery (many Albion brand made by Harrison McGregor), implements around animal farming and husbandry, and items illustrating the history of local agricultural and rural shows.

Industry (Fishing)

Local collecting from 1973, covering deep sea, inshore and river fishing industeries. Items collected relating to sea fishing used to complement the stories provided by the Fleetwood local history and the Lancaster Maritime Museum collections.

This is a collection of nearly 7,000 items including the last surviving Fleetwood-built ketch-rigged sailing smack– the ‘Harriet’ and a Morecambe Bay Prawner the ‘Judy’. These collections relate primarily to the Lancashire based inshore and deep sea fishing industries.The majority of these collections are located at Fleetwood Museum. However there are also smaller collections relating to inland canal and river fishing especially as they relate to the Douglas, Lune and Ribble rivers. The collection includes 4 full sized boats, 60 models of boats, over 30 paintings of ships and fishing or nautical scenes (part of LCCMS fine art collection) and fishing industry related items. There are 4000+ photographs and documents, and of special significance are 11 images of the steam trawler Ribble and its crew at work from the 1920s.

Documents and Photographs

Alongside the artefacts and images is a comprehensive collection of over 1,000 engineering drawings, charts, books, ledgers and documents.

Industry (Textile)

Significant collection ‘Designated’ as being of national and international importance under the Arts Council England Designation Scheme. The scheme identifies the best collections held in museums, libraries and archives across England.

This collection is primarily located in three historic mill buildings – Higher Mill & Whitaker’s Mill, Helmshore (part of the Helmshore Mills Textile Museum site, a Scheduled Ancient Monument) and Queen Street Mill, Burnley (Grade 1 listed). The textile machinery within the historic mills is kept in operational order including the machinery power generation, plant and working machinery as well as raw materials required such as coal and cotton. The Designation includes Higher Mill (both the artefacts and the building) which is owned by The Higher Mill Museum Trust and is also located on the Helmshore Mills Textile Museum site. Material relating to the textile industry held within the Lancashire Archives at the Record Office in Preston has also been included within the Designated Collection.

The collection of 40,000+ items, consist of machinery and archives relating to the mill buildings, their function, and the companies which operated them. The main collection focus was the acquisition of the two working textile mills, Helmshore with the associated Higher Mill in 1979 and Queen Street Mill in 1989. There is also material and machinery relating more generally to the history of the Lancashire textile industry in all its forms with significant archives in the form of records and photographs from yarn, cloth and machinery manufacturers. The Museum Service selected this collection from operational mills and textile companies as they closed down or ceased trading.

Whitaker’s Mill, Helmshore

Whitaker’s Mill is part of the Helmshore Mills Textile Museum site, and contains a complete condenser cotton spinning plant over two floors. Much of this machinery was installed in the 1920s and remains in situ fully operational. Additionally the museum ‘Revolution Galleries’ on the ground floor cover the history and development of the textile industry in Lancashire through the lives of a single family over the generations. These galleries include very early machinery and most significantly the only example world wide of a 96-spindle Arkwright Waterframe.

Higher Mill, Helmshore

Higher Mill (1789) and its lodges and watercourses is the other component of the Helmshore Mills Textile Museum site and is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The building and collection is leased by Lancashire County Council from the Higher Mill Museum Trust – which holds its own Collections Development policy. The LCCMS textile industry collection includes a number of objects relating to the processing of wool which are displayed in Higher Mill. There are also highly significant early textile machines from the Platt Collection which were obtained by LCCMS in the 1980s

Queen Street Mill Textile Museum, Burnley

Queen Street Mill is a late 19th century steam powered mill . Its weaving shed is understood to be the last original working example of its type in the world. The weaving shed now contains over 300 Lancashire looms driven by the 500 hp steam engine, called ‘Peace’. This working engine is fed by a coal fired Lancashire boiler.

The collections at this site concentrate on power weaving and related processes.

Most of the machines are historically associated with Queen Street Mill and a representative number of them are in full working order.

Textile Industry Collections (Associated Collections)

These collections have been acquired to show the delelopment of machinery and processes used in cotton yarn and cotton cloth production. Significant items include at Helmshore the Platt Collection of early textile machinery which includes the only known complete 96-spindle Arkwright Water Frame along with Arkwright carding machines and a rare example of an improved Hargreaves Spinning Jenny. At Queen Street the Hattersley tapestry loom made for the Franco-British Exhibition of 1908 used to weave a reproduction of Edwin Landseer’s painting ‘Bolton Abbey in Ye Olden Times’ which was the most complicated jacquard design ever created. There is also a Lancashire creel and beaming headstock which would have been necessary to produce the sizers’ beams required to feed the tape sizing machines. Recently aquired a fully operational terry towelling automatic loom (1950’s) from a local mill in Padiham.

A variety of textile machines’ ancillary processes are illustrated by machines such as Jacquard card punching, repeating and lacing machines together with heald knitting, reed making, shuttle tipping and calendaring machines.

There is a large collection of cloth finishing and printing blocks, together with a selection of machines used in the smallware trade demonstrating a limited range of cloth finishing principles on a scale which is manageable in museum terms. The sheer size of conventional cloth finishing plants precludes the collecting of machinery from them. Though cotton was the major textile production within Lancashire there were also important centres of wool, silk, gold braid and flax production. There are small collections relating to these important local industries including a significant early gold braid weaving machine and archives of gold braid company, Stephen Simpsons of Preston.

Documents and photographs

Accompanying the artefacts and machinery is a large collection of books and journals relating to, and documenting, the textile industry. This comprises approximately 15,000 books and paper items and approximately 30,000 negatives and photographs. Additional material related to the Lancashire textile industry is held by Lancashire Archives in Preston.

Industry (Traditional Crafts)

These crafts provide an understanding of the local rural economy before the development of Lancashire’s main post industrial manufactories. These collections were acquired at a point when many traditional crafts were modernising thereby enabled the acquisition of complete craft workshops with tools and machines. This collection of approx. 5000 items includes tools, workbenches and materials from clog and shoe makers, joiners, coopers, brush and basket makers, wheelwrights and blacksmiths, cabinet making and shipwrights.

Industry (Other)

Small collection of items used or made in the County together with supporting photographic and documentary material. Collected by Lancashire County Museum Service and the County and Regimental Museum, later the Museum of Lancashire (MoL) along with items taken in at other Lancashire museum sites.

Of particular note are collections relating to printing, iron founding, sweet making (including Blackpool rock), motor vehicle manufacture – a very early example of a Bond Mk a from the Bond Minicar Factory of Preston, and probably the oldest fish and chip range and associated chip shop furniture in preservation from East Lancashire.

Military History

The collection has over 2,000 objects including over 250 medals, over 200 uniform items, 236 firearms and over 75 edged weapons. Additionally, the collection incorporates archive material, silverware, paintings, musical instruments, souvenirs and other items of military equipment such as personal carrying equipment, technological items and campaign furniture. Each of 3 services are represented, to varying extents (Army, Navy and Airforce) as well as home and civil defence units and ‘Cold War’ empemera.

Natural Sciences

Much of these collections have been by local donation rather than active curatorial led collcting. During the late 1980s and 1990s other local authorities and Museums within the Lancashire County Palatine – including the Harris Museum, Preston; Salford Mining Museum; Blackburn Museum; and the Dock Museum, Barrow – have transferred their ornithology, geology, eggs, general natural history collections to LCCMS.

The collection comprises around 97,000 specimens, with approximately 50,000 being attributed to geology samples; 26,000 insects; 5,000 sea shells; 1,000 herbarium specimens; 10,500 ornithology specimens including bird skins, mounts, and eggs; 200 mammal mounts, skins, heads and animal horns.

Geology is the largest element of the Natural Science Collections and is made up of specimens of fossils, minerals and rocks, including some type specimens. It contains a broad selection of British material, and the traditional exotic, aesthetic material that is common in local museum collections, as well as more comprehensive research and academic collections. There is a notable strength in Lancastrian Carboniferous fossils and rocks. Collections worthy of note would include The Learoyd-Ranson Collection: a collection of around 10,000 minerals, rocks and fossils from across the county; The Blackburn Museum Collection: a traditional, local museum collection of some 10,000 items built up over 150 years. Notably it contains around 500 fossils from the Solnhofen Limestone; The Harris Museum Collection: similar to the Blackburn Museum Collection it is a traditional assortment of around 5,000 items; The National Scheme for Geological Site Documentation Collection; a collection of 2,000 items comprising largely of rocks from across the county and was formed during the scheme.

Social History

The Social History collection contains approximately 35,000 items relating to the Lancashire County Palatine. The collection endeavours to reflect the lives and people of Lancashire in relation to their changing surroundings.

The collection has concentrated on material representing domestic and local life, as well as childhood, from the late 17^th to the 21^st century. In a number of cases the acquisition of entire house or shop content or bequests have been used to strengthen this collection. This has included several small 20^th century business outfits, including the contents of a fish and chip shop in Helmshore with an early coal fired range made by Nuttall’s of Rochdale. Material from other shops and occupations includes: a dentists shop, a local chemist, a Preston grocers, and a medical collection from a local GP.

Collection relating to the history, development and operation of mental health facilities in Lancashire’s from the 1840’s – 1980s. Of significance are collections related to the great Victorian Asylums of Whittingham, Royal Albert Asylum and Lancaster Moor Asylum.

Important collections relating to Lancashire Entertainers, entertainment and Northern Comedy, this includes music hall, theatre and ‘end of the pier’ material. The collection is centred around the Hylda Baker Baker bequest (1986) and collections from Eric Morecambe and Ken Dodd. Linked to these collections is the Hylda Baker Archive held at Lancashire Archives, which includes items such as scripts, letters and fan mail. Lancashire links to the Nothern Soul Music scene can be seen with the rare sign from the Mecca Building, Blackpool. There is a small collection of material relating to the Lancashire coast and holidays especially as they relate to the Wakes Weeks.

History of Childhood Collections

The collection covers toys, dolls and accessories from 17th to the 20th centuries including 27 17th century wax, and wax over composition dolls, 10 17th–18^th century wooden dolls, and 50 porcelain dolls dating from 17th– early 19th century. The most significant collection is the Barry Elder Doll bequest of almost 300 items including very early bisque dolls, peg dolls, kewpi dolls, pulcinellos and marionettes, flapper and character dolls. There is an outstanding example of a Fashion Doll, c.1870, by Simmone of Paris which includes over 100 pieces of additional clothing and accessoriests. There are a small number of traditional and rural games including a ‘Knurr and Spell’ – a game which was only played in Lancashire and Yorkshire.

There is a significant collection of over 400 pieces of commemorative ceramics the majority of which relate to Lancashire individuals, commemorations and industries. As well as a small collections of coins and tokens, predominantly, pre-decimalisation coins, trade tokens, local commemorative medals for civic and royal events and The Duchy of Lancaster coin collection. entertainment, commemorative ceramics covering the 18^th, 19th and 20^th centuries.

The commerative coin and numismatic collection comprises of approximately 460 coins and covers Roman, early medieval/ post-medieval and modern coins in Lancashire. Significant Hoards include; Waddington, Sawley and Great Mitton as well as excavation material from Ribchester, Kirkham and Walton-le Dale.

The social history collection includes a variety of occupational costume from over the last 120 years. The collections focus on the history of the Fire and Police Service, Civilian life on the Home Front during WW1 & WW2, including Women’s Land Army costume. As well as a small collection of fashion items from the 1920s 1980s.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2019

Licence: CC BY-NC

The earliest museum collections in Lancaster were founded by the Lancaster’s Mechanics Institute, based in the Athenaeum, now the Grand Theatre. In 1887, to mark Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, Sir Thomas Storey commissioned a new building and re-named the organisation ‘The Storey Institute’. All the existing collections were transferred to the new building when it opened in 1891.

The New Town Hall opened in Dalton Square in December 1909 and in 1923 the Lancaster City Museum was established in part of the vacated Georgian Town Hall in Market Square. The Storey collections were transferred over to the new museum with the exception of Fine Art. The Lancaster City Museum continued to run the Art Gallery in the Storey Institute until late 1960’s when the remaining Fine Art collections were transferred to the Museum.

In 1976-8 a group of derelict houses on Castle Hill were restored as a result Architectural Heritage Year. 15 Castle Hill had retained a number of the original features and the decision was taken to open the building as a museum. The Cottage Museum was furnished with items from the collection to recreate an early 19th century dwelling and became the second Lancaster Museums site.

In 1985 the Lancaster Maritime Museum opened in the town’s former Custom House on St Georges Quay. In 1987 the museum was extended, expanding into the fourth floor of the adjacent warehouse. The Lancaster City Collections now span all three sites, and over the years the collection has continued to develop through donations, bequests and occasional purchases. The collections now consist of approximately 80,000 objects across a range of subject areas, discounting the bulk archaeology.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2019

Licence: CC BY-NC

The museum collections are typical of a civic museum collection with a wide variety of subjects represented, the majority of which are locally relevant, however the collection also contains individual collections donated by local people.

Archaeology

The core collection comprises of approximately 60 material archives from excavations and field surveys as well as casual finds from Lancaster and the surrounding district. Associated documentary material is also held for some archives. The collection consists of ceramic, bone, glass and metal material from the Palaeolithic up to the 19th century. A small amount of material purchased under the treasure act has also been acquired in recent years.

Strengths of the archaeological collections are the Roman material from various excavations, including the Insus memorial and the Burrow Heights heads, and the Anglo-Saxon and Viking Age stonework and burial from Quernmore. A nationally important Bronze Age hoard from Scotforth was also recently acquired.

Significant excavation finds are held for Cockersand Abbey (1923-4), Vicarage Field Lancaster (1929 and 1965-74), Westfield Memorial Village (1934), the Wery Wall Lancaster (1950), Quernmore (1969-71), Mitre Yard Lancaster (1973), The Old Vicarage Lancaster (1975), sites in Church Street Lancaster (1978, 1982 and 1985), China Street Lancaster (1979), Dalton Square Lancaster (1981), Capernwray (1984), Docker Moor (1984-7), Ellel Medieval Pottery Kiln Site (1992), Carnforth Treales Pipeline (1992). Mitchell’s Brewery (1999), 5 Dalton Square (2005), Quay Meadow (2015), Castle Hill (2016)

The museum also holds a number of personal collections from local antiquarians. A small amount of material from other counties and countries is represented in these collections. Notable acquisitions include the Alice Johnson Collection of local samian ware (1923), material collected by J W Jackson’s from Dog Holes, Warton (1945) and a collection of items from Henry Swainson Cowper (1937).

Fine Art

The Fine Art collection comprises approximately 1,800 works dating from the 17th century to the present day. The core collection consists of oil and acrylic paintings, watercolours and drawings and prints. There is also a small group of sculptures, posters and artist’s photographs.

The scope of the collection can be defined as:

• Material depicting local topography, personalities and genre scenes including works by unknown artists.
• Notable holdings include a collection of 17th to early 20th century portraits of the Dalton family, and work by landscape artist Samuel John ‘Lamorna’ Birch (1896 – 1955). ork by local artists and printers.
• There are significant holdings of work by George Romney (1734-1802), James Lonsdale (17771839), Gideon Yates (fl 1803-38), William Woodhouse (1857-1939), Reginald Aspinwall (18581921), Robert Rampling (1835-1909) and The Rembrandt Intaglio Printing Co. Ltd (1895 – 1932). There are individual items from artists such as Ivon Hitchens, Julius Caesar Ibbetson, Joseph Farington, David Roberts and Albert Goodwin.

Decorative Art

The Decorative Arts collection comprises approximately 1,000 items of ceramics, furniture, clocks, metalwork, glass and ivory.

Holdings include:

• Royal commemorative ceramics and ceramics produced for local tourism.
• The Miss Whalley Bequest (1944), primarily English and Continental ceramic figures with carved ivories, jade etc; The Chilton Bequest (1968), primarily oriental ceramics; The Fell Bequest (1986), particularly late 18th and early 19th century teawares and tableware.
• Locally produced ceramics made in Burton-in-Lonsdale and Scotforth in the 19th century and by a number of contemporary potters working across the district in last years of the 20th century – eg John Calver, Michael & Vicky Eden, Andy Hornby, Alvin Irving, Carol Newmarch and Karen Woof. Also tiles by e.g. Shrigley & Hunt.
• Furniture of local manufacture including carved oak furniture and examples of cabinetmaking by Gillows of Lancaster and their contemporaries (eg Bell & Coupland, Simpsons) alongside related cabinetmakers’ tools. There is an important collection of 129 interior design drawings from Gillows, covering the first quarter for the 19th century. NB this is a companion collection to a further 175 such drawings in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
• Material reflecting the local clock and watchmaking tradition with notable examples by Thomas Fayrer, Thomas Worswick and Jonas Barber. Also material reflecting local stained glass workshops of the 19th century, particularly Shrigley & Hunt and Abbott & Co
• A small number of ceramic and glass items related to those towns twinned with Lancaster.

Trade and Industry

This collection includes artefacts that represent the rise and fall of local trades and industries as well as transport developments that aided their growth. The collection is at its strongest in the 20th century but other periods are represented.

Holdings include:-

• Material relating to local trades including clogging, saddle making, blacksmiths and retailing.
• There is a notable collection of embossed/etched/labelled glass bottles and stoneware jars, bottles and flagons from local mineral water manufacturers, breweries, public houses and dairies.
• Small amounts of material relating to the agricultural history of the region are represented.
• The Industrial History collections include material from the oilcloth, table baize and linoleum manufacture (principally at Williamsons and Storey Brothers), silk, rayon and cotton production and metalworking and heavy engineering. As constraints of space have precluded the collection of large-scale machinery these collections include examples of products, photographs of premises and their workforces and company magazines and advertising.
• Smaller scale industries (eg Hornsea Pottery made in their Lancaster factory, local breweries etc) are represented, as are local service industries such as healthcare, architects (Austin & Paley) etc.
• Material relating to the history and development of local transport networks, including the Morecambe Bay cross-sands routes (notably between Hest Bank via Kents Bank to Ulverston); railways, trams and other forms of road transport; and the Lancaster Canal along its fullest geographical extent.
• These collections are cross-disciplinary from, for example, photographs and paintings to equipment, uniforms and commemorative memorabilia.

Maritime History

Collections relate to the maritime history of Morecambe Bay and Lancaster, local rivers and the coastal areas. They include artefacts, images, paintings and documents exploring:-

• The social history of the fishing, boat and shipbuilding, commercial, merchant shipping, seafaring and seaside communities, including maritime crafts, trade, commerce and industry.
• Gas, oil and mineral exploitations, extraction and processing in Morecambe Bay and adjacent sea areas.
• Coastal defence, coast guard, fishery protection and marine rescue organisations.
• Material relating to naval ships ‘adopted’ by Lancaster or local towns and any naval or merchant vessels bearing their name
• Local boat types, notably the Morecambe Bay prawner (nobby boat) and other variants and derivatives (including drawings, photographs and models) that have been built and/or operated elsewhere.
• The Lancaster Port Commission and its facilities around Morecambe Bay including the lighthouse at Walney and landmark at Fleetwood.
• Artistic works with a maritime link, such as the Dennis Parr collection of maritime watercolours and the portrait of Dodgson Foster attributed to William Tate.

Natural Sciences

The Natural Science holdings consist of a very small number of entomology and geological specimens and a small number of mounted specimens.

Several boxes and drawers containing moth specimens of various varieties and at various stages of development.

A collection of geology consisting of a small collection of specimens from Warton Crag, a collection of specimens from Lundsfield Quarry, Carnforth and an unaccessioned box of various specimens.

Numismatics

The collections hold a significant range of items that fall within this discipline, namely:-

• pre-18th century locally-found coinage
• tokens struck for local tradesmen
• tickets, passes and tokens for local industries and institutions
• local commemorative medals for significant civic and royal events
• local bank notes and cheques
• locally-found coin hoards

Local and Social History

The collections in this category include objects, documents and visual material that reflect the changing nature of family and domestic life, working life, social life and leisure. By their nature there is some cross- over with other collection disciplines. The collection is particularly strong in representing the first half of the twentieth century.

Significant holdings of visual material in the form of original photographic prints, negatives, lantern slides, film and video (or copies thereof) from the 1840s onwards. These tend to fall into three main areas – local topography, portraiture and events. The photograph collection is primarily topographical but with good coverage of local industrial and social history subjects. Notable holdings by talented local amateur photographers John Walker and Sam Thompson provide strong visual sources for the late 19th century and first half of the 20th century.

Material that demonstrates local reactions to national and international events. For example, material relating to the Second World War home front concentrates on local services in civil defence, provision for evacuees (both children and civil servants), local life under rationing and blackout restrictions, local commemorative celebrations etc.

There is a small collection of costume and costume accessories that were made, worn in or associated with the area. It provides a reasonable sample or cross section of styles from the second half of the 19th century onwards whilst maintaining a local focus and identity. Supporting material also exists in the form of associated ephemera such as fashion magazines, fashion plates, shop catalogues, knitting or dress patterns and costume-related packaging.

Social institutions and services are represented. Objects and supporting evidence of the local Police Force and Fire Brigade are held covering Lancaster Police Force to 1947 and Lancaster and Morecambe Fire Brigades to 1974.

Material relating to urban and rural local Government, Health, Welfare and Education Services is represented. Items are held relating to Lancaster, Morecambe and the district’s civic life, corporate identity and the Mayoralty.

There is a small group of artefacts related to those towns and villages which Lancaster and local villages are twinned.

Ephemera collection comprising of approximately 2,500 maps, tickets, labels, advertising ephemera, billheads, commemorative pamphlets and certificates exist as part of this collection.

Whilst local business archives and old manuscripts are redirected to appropriate Record Office repositories there are existing collections of documents pertaining to archaeological material.

Small holdings of items relating to local Artillery Volunteers – the 5th Lancashire Garrison Artillery Volunteers, constituents and successors.
There is a small collection of de-commissioned firearms.

Morecambe

The collection contains many items relating to the history of Morecambe and the fishing heritage of Poulton before it, but is not currently in a position where the history of Morecambe could be told.

Areas of the collection where there are strengths are postcards and photographs relating to Morecambe, including the Super Swimming Stadium and the Beauty Pageants. There is also a range of ephemera relating to the theatres and other entertainments.

There are also a number of embossed glass bottles from Morecambe pubs and aerated water companies.

Transatlantic Slave Trade

The museum service currently possesses very little material relating to the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Material tends to be concentrated on the ship owners and their ships, particularly paintings and customs books.

Notable people and events

The museum has some material relating to notable people and events, particularly portraits.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2019

Licence: CC BY-NC