Explore collections

The Pembroke Dock Heritage Trust is housed in a Grade II* listed Georgian Chapel, constructed in 1832 to service the spiritual needs of the staff and employees of the Pembroke Royal Dockyard. The building was fully renovated in 2010 and a new addition that houses a meeting room, kitchen and toilets was added at this point. The Centre sits in extensive grounds, surrounded by mature trees, which also provide extensive free parking for visitors. Disabled parking and a sloping ramp to allow disabled access to the building is provided for.

The Museum was opened by H.M. Queen Elizabeth II in 2014 with donated and loaned artefacts, most originating from the former ‘Flying Boat Interpretation Centre’ and Pembroke Dock Museum Trust, both formerly situated in the town of Pembroke Dock. Many of these artefacts have been expanded with donated items that cover the period from the founding of the Royal Dockyard in 1812 up to the present day. The Museum has for the past two years only accepted into the collection artefacts that are relevant to this period.

The Museum was opened by a group of enthusiasts in 2014 to promote public awareness of the towns military maritime and aviation heritage, educate present and future generations in the towns history and serve as a memorial to men and women who gave their lives in the service of this country. The basis of the collection at this time was an amalgamation of two previous museum Trusts, the Sunderland Trust who operated the Flying Boat Interpretation Centre withing the old Royal Dockyard and the Pembroke Dock Museum Trust who operated a museum within an old, fortified tower on Front Street in Pembroke Dock. Both former Trusts were dissolved, and a formal transfer of all artefacts was made to the Pembroke Dock Heritage Trust before this dissolution. Members of the former Trusts are now Trustees of the Pembroke Dock Heritage Trust.

The Museum is home to an impressive display of historic items and a unique collection of local social and military history dating back 200 years to the present day, together with much flying boat associated memorabilia stretching from the First World War through to the Cold War. Amongst the many attractions, are numerous displays and a flying boat simulator cockpit for visitors to experience. A new exhibition (opened in May 2022) tells the story of the building of the film prop ‘The Millennium Falcon for the movie ‘Star Wars – The Empire Strikes Back’ in 1979.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2022

Licence: CC BY-NC

The Museum is home to an impressive display of historic items and a unique collection of local social and military history dating back 200 years to the present day, together with much flying boat associated memorabilia stretching from the First World War through to the Cold War.

The following is a brief catalogue of the items of the Collection. Core artefacts are shown in bold:

• Photographs/Film: Both digital and printed media. A project to digitally scan all printed photographs in the collection is ongoing.
• Costumes: A large collection of military uniforms of all services form part of the collection. A majority have direct links to the town and associated military establishments.
• Items of service flying clothing worn by flying boat crews.
• A large selection of signed prints and original artworks associated with the RAF flying boat service.
• A collection of flying logbooks and associated documentation from aircrew of the RAF flying boat service.
• A large number of parts from the Short Sunderland Mk1 (T9044) that have been salvaged from the wreck of the aircraft, which sank whilst moored in the Haven in 1940. Many larger items (including an engine and front gun turret) have been restored and put on display. These are the only such items from this mark of Short Sunderland to be displayed in the world. A member of the Trust holds the licence to dive on the wreck and (after due formalities with H.M. Inspector of Wrecks) are completed the artefacts brought to the surface can be added to the collection, depending on their condition.
• A number of large-scale flying boat models, all with an association to RAF Pembroke Dock. Together with large sections of Short Sunderland Mk V airframe, including ailerons, elevators and bomb doors, donated (via IWM Duxford) by the Royal New Zealand Air Force.
• A large collection of medals and ephemera associated with members of the RAF flying boat service.
• A modern exhibition of the Millennium Falcon film prop, built in the Royal Dockyard in 1979, for the movie ‘Star Wars – The Empire Strikes Back’.
• A large collection of artefacts and ephemera associated with the Royal Dockyard, including ship models, prints and dockyard tools.
• The Museum’s Library and document store contains specialist books and documents relating to Pembroke Dock, which are available for research by appointment.
• A full-size replica of the cockpit area of a Short Sunderland flying boat, together with large computer activated screens, which give visitors the chance to re-create a flight in the flying boat around Pembroke Dock.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2022

Licence: CC BY-NC

Social History Collection

The local/social history material relates to North East Lancashire and includes community life themes such as cultural traditions, organisations, regulations, welfare, education, housing structures. Domestic life is represented by items relating to pastimes, heating, lighting and sanitation, furniture and furnishings, cleaning and maintenance, food, drink and tobacco, sport and entertainment, relics/mementoes, timekeeping and personal grooming. Architectural features include fragments of medieval buildings, 17th, 18th and 19th century doors, windows, plasterwork, decorative ironwork and door furniture and also 19th and 20th century fireplaces and hob grates. The association with Witchcraft at Pendle and the Lancashire Witches is also reflected in collections relating to local folklore and personalities of the area.

Subjects

Social History

Agriculture Collection

A collection of agricultural tools and machinery compliment the farm buildings at Pendle Heritage centre. There are also items relating to forestry, fishing and horticulture including documentary evidence of gardening in the region since the late 17th century, a group of 200 traditional gardening tools and implements and an archive of 400 of the plants grown at Park Hill in the 18th century, with botanical descriptions (researched by the Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens).

Subjects

Agriculture

Fine Art Collection

A collection of paintings, prints, lithographs and engravings of local topography, events, buildings and personalities by artists visiting the area from the 18th century onwards. There are also works by local artists.

Subjects

Fine Art

Personalia Collection

18th century diaries of Abraham Hargreaves and Elizabeth Shackleton (Barrowford residents). There are archives of family history relating to the Bannister and Swinglehurst families, who resided at Park Hill.

Subjects

Personalia

Science and Industry Collection

Peat cutting and coal extraction and water supply industry. Manufacturing industries include textile, leather/leather goods, footwear and clothing, and other trades including building construction and repair.

Subjects

Science and Industry

Arms and Armour Collection

Warfare and defence includes civilian life in wartime and civil defence units.

Subjects

Arms and Armour

Costume and Textile Collection

Costume includes men’s, women’s and children’s.

Subjects

Costume and Textile

Decorative and Applied Art Collection

A collection of regional vernacular furniture.

Subjects

Decorative and Applied Arts

Oral History Collection

Oral history archive on Lancashire Textile Industry.

Subjects

Oral History

Transport Collection

General, road, rail and inland waterway transport history is represented in the collection.

Subjects

Transport

Photographic Collection

A substantial collection of B/W photographic prints and negatives dating from the 1870s onwards.

Subjects

Photography

Archives Collection

A rare collection of antiquarian and architectural books on the North West region, maps and estate documents dating from the 17th century to present, Indentures and inventories relating to Park Hill (one dated 1654), 17th century Will transcripts and inventories of people in the Forest of Pendle. Research material including photos and documents associated with the public ‘Houses of the Lancashire Pennines’ by Sarah Pearson (1984), a local buildings survey of 1975 featuring property of historic and architectural interest and a survey of water power sites in Pendle.

Subjects

Archives

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC

Pendon Museum was founded by Roye England, who was concerned about the developments in the 1950s which was permanently changing villages, vernacular buildings, farming, transport and rural life. He started to record and photograph buildings in the Vale of the White Horse and from these surveys, with a small group of like-minded individuals created models of buildings, landscape and railways that have grown into the major models on display at Pendon today.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2022

Licence: CC BY-NC

Founder’s Collection of diaries, photographs, plans and memorabilia created or collected by Roye England

There are three major landscape models which show transport and rural life in the period 1923 – 1938:

• Madder Valley – a historical scene which was completed before donation to Pendon
• Dartmoor – a railway viaduct and station scene constructed in situ
• Vale of the White Horse – a large landscape model still under construction, due for substantial completion in 2020s.

The landscape models, buildings, locomotives, carriages and rolling stock are all treated as accessioned working collections. Maintenance of working parts is carried out on a three-year cycle, or when required, with full records of repairs, replacement parts and conservation procedures.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2022

Licence: CC BY-NC

The institution now called Penlee House was initially known as Penzance and District Museum, and was founded by the Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society in 1839. Its first home was in the Market House, which had just been completed. The Museum was situated in the dome of the building and contained a mixture of Natural Science, Archaeology and Ethnological artefacts – a typical antiquarian museum of the period.

In 1867, the growing Museum moved to the newly constructed St John’s Hall, the town’s main public building. By the end of the decade, however, the Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society had more-or-less ceased to exist and the Museum was in a sort of hibernation. The society was reformed in the mid-1880s, but as no rent had been paid for the museum premises for many years, specimens were sold to raise money and to clear the debt. Insect damage to the Natural History collection meant that much of it was subsequently destroyed.

The Museum remained in St John’s Hall until 1947. The society sold the collections to Penzance Borough Council in 1937 for a nominal sum, with an agreement that they would be displayed for the public good. In 1939 the collections were put into storage and unfortunately many items subsequently disappeared. No record of the Museum’s extensive Egyptian collection can be found. Also missing is a Bronze Age gold torque, and more unusual items such as the hand of a Mummy with a gold signet ring, a shrunken head and poisoned arrows.

At the end of World War II, the owners of the Penlee Estate were planning to build on the land and to demolish the house. The then Mayor, Robert Thomas, decided to open a public appeal and purchase the estate as a War Memorial. The estate is about 15 acres, and the purchase price was £13,000. It was decided to use the house as a museum and arts centre, plus two domestic council dwellings.

The Museum was opened in its new home by Sir Cyril Fox on 24th June 1949. It was administered by the Borough Librarian from 1949 until 1974, when Penzance lost its borough status and the Museum became the property of Penwith District Council. In April 1983, ownership of the Penlee Estate reverted back to Penzance Town Council.

In the 1990s, substantial funding was raised from various sources, including the Heritage Lottery Fund, the European Regional Development Fund, Penwith District Council, Penzance Town Council and the Friends of Penlee House, to refurbish and develop the Museum and Art Gallery. Overseen by Robert Allen, architect, the building was completely redeveloped, adding Gallery spaces, lift access and the cafe and shop, as well as refurbishing the museum. Care was taken to preserve the feel of the original genteel Victorian home, while providing state-of-the-art conditions for the display and care of the collections.

Penlee House re-opened in its current form in 1997 and now offers changing displays drawn from its own collections, supplemented by loans from public and private collections, reflecting the unique, rich heritage of the far west of Cornwall. Penlee House is at the heart of the local community and uses its collections to engage with children, young people, adults and older people. The learning programme at Penlee House is well-established. Its aims are to introduce children and young people to Penlee House and to understand and remove the barriers that anyone may face when trying to access Penlee House and its collections.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2022

Licence: CC BY-NC

Museum Collections

Comprise of Archaeological, Natural History and Social History Collections. A large proportion of these were owned by the former Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society, founded in 1839. This collection became the property of Penzance Borough Council in 1939 and, subsequently, as a result of Local Government reorganisation in 1974, the property of Penwith District Council: since further Local Government reorganisation in 2009, ownership currently rests with Cornwall Council until 31 March 2022. In March 2022 the Service Level Agreement with Cornwall Council will come to an end and ownership of the collection will be transferred to Penzance Council. This comprises 65% of the present collection and it is supplemented by items which are the property of the Penzance Council (32%) and items in private ownership which are held on loan (3%).

Archaeology

The present collection covers all periods from the Palaeolithic to the Mediaeval, encompassing the Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Romano British and Mediaeval periods. The collection includes flint, stone and pottery, plus a selection of replica gold Torcs and Bracelets (the originals of which are held by the British Museum). Much of the material was field collected between 1875 and 1930. The collection at present numbers about 3,500 items or item groups, including a recently acquired hoard of approximately 2,000 Roman coins, which are in the process of being accessioned, plus two large deposits from Lesingey and Bosilliack.

Natural Science

The present collection comprises:

• A case of butterflies and bees
• 117 items of taxidermy including mammals and birds.
• A large collection of birds’ eggs comprising 304 accessioned items containing approximately 700 eggs in clutches, nests and loose eggs.
• All items are primarily of local significance.

Social History

The present collection comprises artefacts that have been acquired by Penlee House since its inception in 1839. The collection covers all the headings listed in the statement above and totals approximately 4,230 items.

The collections range from around.1800 to the present day with the bulk of items dating from 1850-1910 and have a direct connection with the far west of Cornwall: Commerce, Domestic (home, personal and family life), Education, Entertainment, Farming, Fishing, Horticulture, Local Government, Military, Mining, Quarrying, Religion Tourism, Transport and War.

In general, the collection has been developed by passive, rather than planned collecting. The exceptions to this are Tourism and Transport, where efforts have been made to cover the subject areas in more depth.

The collections are primarily owned by Penzance Town Council and Cornwall Council (until 2022 when Penzance Town Council will assume sole ownership). A very small percentage of these items (3%) are on loan.

The Art Collection

Includes items that were formerly owned by Penzance Borough Council and were subsequently transferred to the ownership of Penzance Town Council. This comprises 99.5% of Penlee House’s total permanent art collection and the remaining 0.5% consists of works which are currently the property of Cornwall Council until 31 March 2022. The Governing Body regularly solicits and accepts works of art on loan for temporary exhibition. In addition, it accepts works on long term loan to supplement the collections, and approximately 9% of the fine art collection is on long term loan, including 29 works belonging to Newlyn Art Gallery.
The following gives more detail about each sub-section of the collections

Fine Art

The collection currently consists of approximately 920 works including 260 oil paintings, 170 watercolours, 115 drawings and 375 prints. These range in date from the late 18th Century to the present day, the majority being the work of artists associated with the Newlyn School c.1880-1940.
Significant artists currently represented include Samuel John ‘Lamorna’ Birch, Frank Bramley, Percy Craft, Stanhope Forbes, Elizabeth Forbes, Norman Garstin, Fred Hall, Harold Harvey, Frank Gascoigne Heath, Harold Knight, Laura Knight, Walter Langley, Ernest Procter, Charles Simpson and Ralph Todd.

The most significant items are a small group of well-known paintings including ‘The Rain it Raineth Every Day’ by Norman Garstin, ‘School is Out’ by Elizabeth Forbes, ‘Eyes and No Eyes’ by Frank Bramley, ‘Among the Missing’, ‘Departure of the Fleet for the North’ and ‘Time Moveth Not, Our Being ‘Tis That Moves’ by Walter Langley and ‘Abbey Slip’ and ‘On Paul Hill’ by Stanhope Forbes.

Included in this total are 29 Newlyn School works on long-term loan from Newlyn Art Gallery and a further 60 on long-term loan from other institutions or private individuals.

The print collection is mainly topographical but also includes fine art prints by artists such as Elizabeth Forbes, Laura Knight and Edward Bouverie Hoyton.

Sculpture

There are currently only six examples: – two bronzes and one terracotta by Barbara Tribe (‘Medusa’, ‘Simon’ and ‘Linda’); two stone relief carvings by Rosamund Fletcher (daughter of William Blandford Fletcher), dating from the 1930s, and a head study of Barbara Tribe by Eric Hiller.

Decorative Art

The collection consists of decorative metalwork, ceramics and printed textiles:
Decorative Metalwork: The core of this collection comprises around.40 examples of Newlyn copper, one of Newlyn silver and three of Newlyn enamel. There are also a small number of items of Hayle copperware, three examples of work by Francis Cargeeg (on long-term loan) and one necklace by Ella Naper.

Ceramics: Following donations of over 130 items in 2007 and 2009, the collection consists of around 225 items of 20th Century studio pottery from West Cornwall, including examples by Bernard Leach and the Leach Pottery; Seth Cardew; the Celtic Pottery, Newlyn; Troika Pottery, St. Ives, and Arch Pottery, St. Ives. A further 40 items of Troika Pottery were donated in 2018 (having previously been on long-term loan).
Textiles: Penlee House has a special interest in the activities of the Cryséde factory (Newlyn 1920-25, St Ives 1925-40) and that of its founder, the designer and artist Alec Walker, and holds approximately 480 examples of garments, pieces and lengths, which includes around 150 items on loan from a private collection. Other textiles include an example of Newlyn embroidery and examples of local hand-block printing from Mill House Textiles, Penzance (1950s).

Photographic and Image collection

The present collection comprises photographs (including photographic prints, glass and film negatives, magic lantern slides and digitised images), postcards and other printed images. Included are Cartes de Visite, Cabinet cards, albums and large mounted images.

The collection numbers in excess of 10,000 items ranging in date from 1850 to the present day and is the largest single collection housed in Penlee House. Photographers represented include Preston, Gibson, Richards, Penhaul, Frith and Valentine. Processes represented in the collection include Ambrotype, Daguerreotype, Ferrotype, Collodion, and Albumen prints. As resources allow, images will be copied onto archival negatives and fibre-based paper to safeguard the collection. The Penhaul Archive consists of around 4,000 prints and 2,000 glass plate negatives, in 2009 we acquired a group of 465 magic lantern slides depicting West Cornwall and in 2016 we purchased the Gibson archive, containing over 1500 prints and glass plate negatives.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2022

Licence: CC BY-NC

Geology Collection

The collection comprises mainly of fossils (1000 specimens). There are also 475 mineral specimens and 225 rock specimens, many of local provenance and relating to mining and other economic geology of the Penrith area.

Subjects

Geology

Archaeology Collection

A small collection of mainly local finds, with some foreign material.

Subjects

Archaeology

Biology Collection

A small amount of botanical and zoological material, including insect collections.

Subjects

Biology

Fine Art Collection

A small collection of oils and watercolours that includes works by Dutch Masters (Heemskerk, Wouverman, Teniers II and Brouwer) and paintings by the English School.

Subjects

Fine Art

Other

Archives; Local photographs; Military material; Social History

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC

The collection consists of documents, photographs and artefacts related to the long history of Penryn, from pre-historic times, through the establishment and dissolution of Glasney College ( 1265-1558 ) to the 21st century. Penryn was an important port in the late 16th century and early 17th century and this is reflected in the collection. There is also material related to the important local granite industry and other items related to the First World War.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2022

Licence: CC BY-NC

The documented collection consists of: Social history 3,554 items/ Library 508items/photographs 1198 items.

There is a further 544 items still awaiting cataloguing. Most of this will not be relevant to Penryn and will be disposed of.

The strength of the collection is in its relevance to the historical time line.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2022

Licence: CC BY-NC

People’s History Museum’s collection is organised as two distinct entities: the ‘Object Collection’ (also known as the ‘Museum Collection’) and the ‘Archive Collection’, which is cared for by the Labour History Archive and Study Centre (LHASC); the history of the Archive Collection is laid out in the Collecting Policy of LHASC. The Object Collection is cared for and managed by the Collections team to Spectrum 5.1 standards, and is used throughout the museum galleries. Objects not in use are stored at the museum’s off_site storage facility in both accessible and deep storage.

The Object collection is made up of two- and three-dimensional objects and ephemera. The collection was first established in the 1960s, by the Trade Union, Labour, Democratic and Co-Operative History Society(TULC).The TULC collected radical and working class historic objects, which were at the time largely ignored by academia and the museum sector. The TULC opened the National Museum of Labour History (NMLH) in Limehouse in 1975, and the collection grew in size and prestige. Key collections were added during this time, largely from socialist and left-wing donors, including the Walter Southgate bequest (a founding member of the TULC) and the works of communist artist Cliff Rowe.

Following the closure of the Limehouse museum in 1987, the Object Collection was moved to Manchester and the museum was reopened on Princess Street in 1990. With the continued growth of the collection, the museum opened a second site in Spinningfields in 1994, and re-named to the people’s History Museum in 2001; in 2010 the Spinningfields site re-opened after a redevelopment and became the single site of the museum. From this time, the collections grew significantly in size and scope.

The collecting focus of the museum has expanded and developed significantly over the years, and has also shifted in such a way as to leave areas of the current collection out of scope for use (see priorities for rationalisation). As the focus of current affairs and the museum has shifted away from Trade Union activism towards grassroots campaigns, so too has the collection. In fact, the scope of the collection has continually widened since the move to Manchester, without any real assessment of the collecting policy to assess which areas may no longer fit, or be needed, within the collection.

The collection, when at Limehouse, focused heavily on early radicalism, socialism, and the fight for universal suffrage. The collections effectively worked to track the formation of Left-Wing mainstream politics, from Thomas Paine to the Labour Party’s election into government. A key area of this was, of course, the formation of Trade Unions, the shift in Unionism from the New Model Unions, and strike movements, such as the Dockers Strike, the General Strike, the Miner’s Strike, and the Grunwick Strike.

Following the move to Manchester, this focus continued with the addition of more objects relating to key campaigns at the time, such as the campaign against Poll Tax, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and the Anti-Apartheid Movement. Key political moments continued to be collected, and semi-regular deposits were received from the Labour Party, including the campaign in the run up to the 1997 General Election. The collection, by this time, also included several deposits of workmen’s tools, as well as some occupational costume, but the focus of the collection had started to shift. In 1998, the whole of the collection was Designated as being of National Importance.

The shift continued significantly following the completion of the “One Site” project – the redevelopment of the Spinningfields site and reopening as the sole gallery space for the museum.1 Following the redevelopment, several key changes to the running of the museum once again expanded the focus of the collection; in 2010 the Directorship changed from Nick Mansfield, who had run the museum since its move to Manchester, to Katy Ashton; in 2015 DCMS removed support funding from the museum, leading to a contracting of resource; and a strategic change to themed programmes as the focus for the museum, led by community participation, changed the focus of the collections curation.

The change to the ‘Programme-led Approach’ had a very strong impact on the museum’s collection. The first three programmes looked at anniversaries of key events: the decriminalisation of homosexuality(2017); the Representation of the People Act (2018); and the Peterloo Massacre (2019). Following these, two key themes were focused on: Migration, and Disability Rights and Activism). With each of these, the collections team sought to strengthen the areas of focus. This was largely done through the acquisition of objects loaned to the museum for exhibition by members of the community, and saw huge success for the LGBT collections in particular.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2025

Licence: CC BY-NC

The Object Collection is Designated, and estimated to have between 60,000 and 100,000 objects, varying in physical size from large banners to coins, medals and badges; around 12,O00 records are available on the museum’s collections database, some of which are object groups or overall collection records featuring hand-lists of individual items.

Estimates have been made for the types of collections the museum currently holds.

These object types, with their sub-groups, can be defined as follows:

Numismatics and Para- Numismatics

• Medals
• Coins and Notes
• Tokens
• Badges

Works on paper

• Prints
• Posters
• Photographs*
• Unframed Drawings and Paintings on paper
• Sketchbooks

Books and Bindings

• Books
• Scrapbooks
• Photograph Albums
• Autograph Books
• Bound card collections

Artworks (Fine and Decorative)

• Paintings
• Framed Works on paper
• Sculpture
• Ceramics

Textiles

• Banners
• Painted Textiles
• Costume

Furniture

• Large Furniture (tables, desks, bookcases etc.)
• Small Furniture (tills, office tidies etc.)
• Signage
• Ballot boxes

Social and Political history objects

• 3-dimensional social history
• Ephemera and leaflets
• Placards
• Presentation items
• Union Regalia

Some areas of the collection are best organised by donor – whether these were from individuals or groups. These collections tend to be stored together within the off-site store:

Department of Employment

Office furniture; photographs; leaflets; posters. This large collection came to the museum when the Department of Employment merged with the Department for Social Security to become the DWP.

CPGB Collection

Posters; 3-d objects; banners. This is the largest collection from the Communist Party of Great Britain, and was donated in 1994.

CPGB Klugmann and [xxxx] collection

Tokens; medals; prints. The collection of tokens and medals was purchased from the collection CPGB in 1991.

Communist Party Picture Collection

Photographs; Negatives; Prints. This collection was donated in 2000; it includes photographs, which were transferred to LHASC,as well as prints.

Brooks and Niven Collection

Posters; designs; leaflets; artworks. The collection includes a large number of posters relating to the Daily Worker and the Second World War, but also some design work and mockups of the posters.

Cliff Rowe Collection

Artworks; sketchbooks; book sleeves; publications. This collection was donated by the artist upon his retirement, and included the contents of his studio.

Walter Southgate Collection

Ephemera; 3-d objects; tokens.

Co-operative Wholesale Society

Household furniture; advertisements; milk tokens; packaging.

Collinson Collection

Postcards; badges; ephemera.

Ernest Hole Badge Collection

Badges; Artworks. A collection of badges acquired in 2019, relating to Ernest Hole, who owned the Gay’s The Word bookshop in London.

Llewelyn T Smith Card collection

Greetings Cards.

John Gorman Collection

Photographs; Sales Catalogues; Banners.

Ken Sprague Print Collection

Folios; Poster Prints; Designs. We have multiple folio collections of Ken Sprague prints, donated by the Ken Sprague Fund.

Chile Solidarity Campaign

Posters; 3-d objects; banners. A large collection relating to the Chile Solidarity Campaign, mostly catalogued.

Key collections from groups: DoE, LP, CPGB, TUC, TGWU, CSC. There are also some large collections on long-term loan to the museum.

Labour Party Collection

3d objects; posters; ephemera.

TUC Collection

Banners; posters; ephemera; placards; 3-d objects; badges.

Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign

Posters.

TGWU

Photographs; Ephemera; Sashes; Badges.

Manchester Unity Friendly Society

Ceramics; Sashes; Regalia.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2025

Licence: CC BY-NC

Social History Collection

There is a small range of domestic items and artefacts relating to farming; mining; and the former railway. There are some items of uniform of the local band and fire service; some Victorian costume; artefacts relating to the church and chapel; and maps and posters.

Photographic Collection

There is small collection of postcards and photographs relating to the parish of Perranzabuloe and comprises both original prints and copies.

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC

Beginning of the Collection

Lancaster University was founded by Royal Charter in 1964 and moved to its purpose-built campus in 1967, moving from its original site within Lancaster City Centre. From the early 1970s LU began building an art collection. This activity was primarily guided by the University’s ‘Embellishment Committee’ – which acted on behalf of the University to make the campus more appealing to the public and its growing student population. This committee, and the development of art acquisitions, was primarily driven by Michael Argles, a library staff member and unofficially the first curator before the gallery was fully formed. Other committee members included university academic and non-academic staff, and student members. The most notable are: HRH Princess Alexandra (Chancellor), Sir Charles Frederick Carter (Vice Chancellor), Peter Shepherd (who conducted artist proposals and focused on campus sculpture), Peter F. Scott CBE (acting chairman, in the absence of the Vice Chancellor, and later patron/namesake of PSG), and a circulating entourage of artists who submitted proposals and advised the committee.

The art collection mainly consisted of works by contemporary British artists, and acquisition was made both by purchase and commission. This collection comprised mainly artists’ original prints, with some oil paintings, watercolours, and a small number of public realm sculptures through residencies under the aegis of the Granada fellowship programme. The bulk of works in the collection dating from this period were associated with two specific areas: The North West of England; and Cornwall (artists associated with St. Ives). Towards the end of the 1970s the Embellishment Committee ceased to function, and focus shifted to estate management and design features rather than art commissions or purchases.

The earliest form of the PSG, or the Scott Gallery as it was then known, opened in 1974 at the southern end of the campus in Pendle College (occupying the building’s roof space). Showcasing items bought by the embellishments committee, touring exhibitions from private galleries and student art & design shows. The gallery was given its first committed staff member in 1983 – Helen Brown, as an Exhibitions Organiser for three years until Mary Gavagan became the gallery’s first official curator from 1986 to 2009. Following 2009, PSG became part of the university’s integrated professional arts organisation alongside the Nuffield Theatre and the Concert Series based at the Great Hall. This would become LA. The gallery moved to its present location within the Great Hall Complex on the North side of the campus in 1988, becoming the Peter Scott Gallery.

In 2001, the Peter Scott Gallery Charitable Trust was established with Lord Shuttleworth as Chair for the following 18 years. A portion of the collection (the Irene Manton bequest – see below) was transferred by the University to the Trust, with the University retaining direct ownership over the remainder. Both collections have continued to grow and are managed together by Lancaster Arts on behalf of the University, under terms set out in an agreement between the University and the Trust. The Peter Scott Gallery has been an Accredited Museum since 2010.

The Irene Manton Bequest

In 1988 LU received a substantial collection – the Irene Manton Bequest. This group of paintings and prints was augmented in 1995 by the transfer of further works that formerly belonged to Professor Manton, which had been held at Leeds University since her death. These works complemented LU’s existing collection, as most of the works in the Bequest were artists’ original prints, reflecting Professor Manton’s particular interest in prints and printmaking. Some interesting examples included are works by: Jean Arp’s Gathering of Forms (1966), Eduardo Chillida’s series of prints for Le Chemin des Devins’ suivi de ‘Menerbes (1966), the illustrated book Constellations with one lithograph and twenty-two pochoir reproductions after gouache works by Joan Miró (1959), two prints by Ben Shahn Decalogue (1960) and Pleiades (1960), the Hommage au Carre series by Joseph Albers (1964), and many more. With this large bequest a more international collection was formed.

In addition to the collection of artists’ original prints, other groups which can be identified within the collection are:

Chinese and Japanese paintings and prints: this part of the bequest includes examples of seventeenth century Chinese art as well as works by twentieth century Chinese artists. Manton first began to collect art after visiting an exhibition of Chinese Art at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1935. As a scientist she was particularly interested in the detailed studies of nature produced by Chinese artists. Works in this collection include scroll and fan paintings, ink rubbings, and prints.

A small antiquities collection (79 items) – see below for further information.

Archival documents relating to Irene Manton.

The Chambers Gift & Bequest

In 1994 LU was given a substantial ceramics collection. The collection comprises over 300 items of Royal Lancastrian Pottery donated by Miss Mary Chambers (19102002), on behalf of herself and her brother Arthur Chambers. In August 2002 the museum received a substantial bequest of archive material from Miss Mary Chambers. Miss Chambers was the daughter of John Chambers (1869-1945), who was the Chief Designer at Pilkington’s Tile and Pottery Company during what is generally considered to be its golden era (1898-1918). Among the thousands of items in the bequest were delicate illustrations and designs, posters, architectural plans, photographs, rare books and catalogues, diaries, paperwork, stencils for tiles, artists’ materials, and ceramics.

Artists featured within the archive are Alphonse Mucha, Walter Crane, Lewis F. Day, C. F. A. Voysey, as well as notable works by artists who were employed by Pilkington’s. Overall, the Chambers Collection (comprising of 17,497 objects approx.) is of national significance due to its varied and rich nature, unknown works by famous creators and the stories it highlights.

Gifts Made by A Donor Who Wished to Remain Anonymous (19932006)

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s the University received generous donations of art from a donor who resided in Morecambe. The donor wished to remain anonymous in their generous contribution to the collection. The artworks received comprised mainly of works by the Darwen born artist James Hargreaves Morton (1881-1918), otherwise known as the ‘Cotton-town impressionist’. There were single works by the artists: Francis Dodd, Ben Nelson, Harold Sutton-Palmer, Albert

Goodwin, Joseph Knight, Sidney Filmore, Dorothy Apted, Muirhead Bone, and Arthur Briscoe, totalling approximately over 130 works. The gifts significantly strengthened the representation of artists from the north of England, bolstering regional significance, and extended the temporal range of the collection to include the 19^th century as well as the early 20^th century.

Acquisitions and gifts in the Twenty-First Century

Both the University owned collection and the PSGCT owned collection have continued to grow through gifts and acquisitions over the past two decades. This has included substantial gifts of contemporary art into the PSGCT owned collection via the Contemporary Art Society’s Museum member scheme (Peter Liversidge 2018, Sena Başöz 2022), as well as acquisitions of work from artists involved in Lancaster Arts’ contemporary combined arts programme. Occasional gifts to the University have included further items of Pilkington’s pottery.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2023

Licence: CC BY-NC

Paintings, drawings, prints and photography

Paintings & Watercolours

There are over 300 watercolours and paintings in the collection. They vary in style from European modernist examples of abstraction (Wilhelmina Barns-Graham’s ‘Oblong Cobalt Blue on Violet’ [1969] and Luigi Pericle’s ‘Grated Jadegate’ [1962] for example) to more representational landscape, portrait and still life painting. The paintings in the collection vary in size and technique, with some measuring at nearly 6ft high to others being made on scrolls or fans. The geographic locus is varied, including Europe, Asia, North America with some sparse material from Africa. A primary theme in some of the European paintings is the attention to form and colour, many having at times a ‘cellular’/organic appearance which may have been what drew Irene Manton’s eye when collecting these pieces.

Some paintings/watercolours are held in sketchbooks (Norman Adams and E.E. Clarke) and are prime examples of each artist’s work – especially of the North West and Northern England.

Collage

There are a small number of collage works within the collection, including pieces by William Tucker, Lee Strasburger, and Theresa Bajenko.

Drawings

The drawings in the collection span a variety of media including graphite, ink and charcoal, and include both European and Chinese and Japanese examples. Depictions of landscapes and nature from the North West are particularly strongly represented through the collection of James Hargreaves Morton’s works. Morton’s drawings comprise mainly of scenic views of the Darwen and Blackburn area, particularly of the Pennines and moorlands. There are also drawings of rural life, pastoral scenes and farm animals.

The drawings found in the Norman Adams Sketchbook(s) and E.E. Clarke collection within the Chamber’s Archive, both created in the mid-20^th century, are numerous and depict views of Yorkshire (Ribblesdale & Douk Ghyll, and Gordale Scar specifically – Adams), The Lake District (Clarke) and Italy (Clarke, again).

In the minority within the collection are drawings of urban life. The drawings by Lowry and Lynton Lamb, Tsung Yu, Cliff Rowe and Muirhead Bone are the few examples of cities and towns within the drawings collection.

A small minority of drawings are of figures associated with the university and of buildings on campus (Grizedale College).

Prints & Etchings

At around 550 works, prints dominate the art collection, having been the focus of both the initial phase of purchasing by the university in the 1960s and 1970s, and of Professor Irene Manton’s collecting dues to her interest in the history of print making and in prints as an affordable means of making art accessible to everyone.

The collection is international in scope (ranging from First Nation/Inuit, Africa, India, a wide scope of the history of Japanese and Chinese print making (18^thc. – 20^thc.), European Modernism, Abstract Expressionism to local artists within Northern England). Some of our earliest prints come from the Northern Renaissance movement in the 15^th century (works by Hanns. S. Lautensack (1553) and Albrecht Dürer (1505)). Evidence of a range of print methods in the collection vary from lithographs to screen-prints, woodcuts to giclée printing, dry point etching and even printmaking equipment in the form of a Japanese wood printing block from the 18^th century.⁵ Prints by Pablo Picasso, Joan Mirò, Rembrandt, Dürer, and Hockney are present within the collection.

Photography

The majority of photography within the collection is contained within the Chambers Bequest and Gift. These photographs were made partly to document the factory life of the Pilkington’s site at Clifton Junction, to document inspiration for possible designs and patterns, commemorative purposes and personal photography. Another collection of photography is E. E. Clarke’s personal documentation of his walks in and around the Lake District and Cumbria. These also include photos of his residence and colleagues, wildlife, topographical features and for the majority, in general, natural landscapes. Both Clarke’s and Chamber’s collections can be considered archival and personal to their taste rather than specifically artistic in scope.

The PSG also has a robust collection of art photography, including a collection of photography by Mel Brimfield. It explores both contemporary performance and theatre practises as well as a ‘Vasari-minded’ camp exploration into the lives of artists and B-Movie horror (Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Jackson Pollock and Vincent Van Gogh). A stark and monochromatic exploration into organic and geological form by Paul Kenny in the form of a photographic print series was the result of an artist’s residency c.2004/2005.

Sculpture

The sculpture collection includes both sculpture in the public realm around the campus (and an associated maquette), and smaller works for interior display.

Campus Sculpture

Sculptures around campus were commissioned or acquired for the university to compliment the landscaping and Brutalist styling of the buildings, particularly in the early decades. These include Barbara Hepworth’s Dual Form (1965, bronze) (BH 396, edition of 7, with other versions situated at the Guildhall, St Ives; Leeds City Art Gallery; Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo, The Netherlands; The Phillips Collection, Washington D.C., USA; and the Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, USA). Annelise Henecka’s Metamorphosis of Daphne (1973, cast concrete) and John Hoskin’s Abstract Form (1973, aluminium)¹ were both commissioned for the campus as result of artist residencies during the early 1970s, and both Henecka and Hoskin taught at the university.

From the late 1990s to the 2000s, a committee was established to commission further sculptures for the benefit of the campus. Bull’s Head and Angel in Boots (c.1995, limestone) were acquired from Shawn Williamson, a Cumbria-based sculptor and alumnus of Lancaster University (in the form of St Martin’s College) and Sesqui from Charles Hadcock, who went on to be chair of the PSGCT (2017-2023).

While there are a number of memorial and commemorative monuments and plaques around the university, these are not considered to be part of the collection and therefore are not included within the scope of this policy document.

Gallery Sculpture

The collection includes smaller sculptural works in a variety of media including metal, stone, plaster, wood and acrylic/plastic. These include Rory McEwen’s Prismatic Perspex Box (1967, acrylic and Perspex) and Oliver Bevan’s Light Box which both rely on light and optical illusion/play. Other examples are Jimmy Boyle’s Adieu to All That (2005, clay, bronze and marble), Hannah Frank’s Conversation (1977, bronze) and Ben Turnbull’s EVERY HOME SHOULD HAVE ONE (BUGSY MALONE) (2012, mixed media).

Applied arts

Ceramics

Chambers Bequest and Gift contains a significant collection of Pilkington’s and Royal Lancastrian Ware ceramics. These take a variety of forms including moulds, decorative tiles, hat pins, buttons, jars, vases, dishes, bowls, plates, mosaic tiles and animal forms, giving a chronological and stylist spread from the 1880s to the 1950s.

The Chambers Bequest is complemented by a variety of twentieth and twenty-first century ceramics by artists including Halima Cassell, Emmanuel Cooper, Pamela Leung, James Tower and Jason Wason.

Textiles

The collection includes a very small number of textile pieces. These include Gay Swift’s textile collage Night Flowers (1970) and Garth Gratrix’s beach towel artworks such as Seaside (2021).

Antiquities

Lancaster University’s Collection includes a number of antiquities collected by Irène Manton. The collection includes Roman, Greek, Cypriot and Egyptian vessels in ceramic and glass, and a selection of artefacts which relate to Professor Manton’s interest in the history of writing, viniculture, ancient faience making, ecological ornamentation and other areas if collecting linked to her wide-ranging academic enquiries.

Examples of items from the collection include a Roman glass beaker, an Egyptian papyrus fragment from a Book of the Dead, an Ethiopian prayer scroll, a Persian seal stamp in bronze, Cypriot wares, a Greek Kylix, and an inscribed brick from Babylonia. Manton included replicas as well as originals in her collection.

The provenance of some parts of the antiquities collection is problematic, reflecting Manton’s pattern of purchasing from dealers in the 1960s and 1970s who offered certificates of authenticity but little further provenance information and whose sources may have included those illegally removing antiquities from Cyprus or Turkey, for example. It is possible that future research will pave the way for restitution claims, and in the short term the museum will work with decolonisation initiatives within the university to consider how these objects can be used as a learning resource around critical heritage and help expand understandings of repatriation, archaeological context and provenance.

Digital & Film

The PSG holds a number of films in its collection that were acquired in the 2010s.

Notable examples include:

• Jumpers (what must I do to be saved) (2013) by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, a commissioned video installation that looks at a live experiment in manipulation and compliance.
• Four performance films by Mel Brimfield: Death and Dumb Part 2 (2013), Clement Greenberg – Lee Krasner = Jackson Pollock (2013), Between Genius and Desire – Jackson (after Ed Harris) (2013), An Audience with Willy Little (film excerpt of live performance) (2013).
• A solitary film that combines film and painting by Taiwanese artist Wu Chi-Tsung, Landscape in the mist 001 (2012).

Installation

Installation pieces by the artists Peter Liversidge and Sena Başöz have been acquired recently and reflect a broadening of the range of art practices collected. Liversidge’s Physical Jukebox (2023) is an immersive installation activated by the audience, while An Invisible Thread (2023) is a site-specific work within the University Library. Başöz’s Forough (2018) acts as a ‘flying archive’ blending ecology, historiography and sound into one unified experience that resonates with the trauma of Turkey’s history and the country’s wildlife.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2023

Licence: CC BY-NC

Fine Art

The Museum has relatively good collections of mainly British oil and watercolour paintings and drawings, dating from the 17th century to the present day, including watercolours of Peterborough Cathedral by J M W Turner and David Cox, an oil-‘Rest on the Flight into Egypt’ by Van Huysum (1682-1741) and ‘View of Port St Denis’ by Walter Sickert, 1932. The majority of the works were obtained for their local connections, either in portraits, landscape or townscape. Non-local works mostly result from private bequests, the most important of which are the Martin bequest of mainly late 19thc and early 20thc oils and watercolours and the Hindley-Smith bequest of late 19thc and early 20thc works. The collection is strong in British post-war pictures and sculptures.

Decorative Art

The museum has collections of ceramics, including Staffordshire pottery and glass and English drinking vessels. Since 1983, the museum has been developing a collection of contemporary craft work purchased and commissioned from selected regional craftspeople; The prison at Norman Cross near Peterborough was constructed for the custody of French and Dutch prisoners taken captive during the Napoleonic Wars between 1797 and 1815. Most of the prison-of-war work consists of objects of carved bone and ivory, including model ships (many of the prisoners were sailors), guillotines, needle-work boxes and playing cards; and articles of straw marquetry. It is the largest collection of such items in the world. In 2002 Peterborough Museum launched the Norman Cross Conservation Project to care for the items in most need of conservation. The project is funded by grants awarded by the Pilgrim Trust, Garfield Weston Foundation, the Museum Society and the Friends of Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery.

Archaeology

The Archaeology collection consists principally of artefacts retrieved from the Peterborough area, either as chance finds or as the product of systematic excavation. The material resulting from the excavations form archaeological archives which consist of registered finds, bulk finds, plans, maps, notes, photographs, x-rays and computer data. The Museum also houses the Peterborough Sites and Monuments record. The collections range from the early Palaeolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages, Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Medieval to the end of the 16th century. Early collections include the antiquarian artefacts of E T Artis (early 19thc Roman discoveries) and George Wyman Abbot (early 20thc discoveries of Palaeolithic flints and prehistoric Fengate). The excavation archives mainly result from work commissioned by English Heritage in advance of Peterborough New Town developments in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Many significant finds include ceramic assemblages giving their name to Neolithic and Roman pottery (Fengate and Nene Valley). The largest sub-groups in the collections are the archives from the Romano-British excavations at Ashton and Orton Hall Farm.

Local and Social History

Other aspects of community life include material relating to local events and activities, schooling and civic life. The domestic and family category includes material relating to heating, lighting, sanitation, furnishings and fittings, family medical matters, cleaning, cooking implements, food and drink, toys, hobbies and sports, ornaments, laundry equipment, shopping, DIY, and private transport. The personal life category material such as writing equipment, toilet items, watches, spectacles and walking sticks. The working life category includes materials relating to local crafts, trades, industries and commercial activity in the local area; The collections consists of occupational and military uniforms, men’s, women’s and children’s clothing, mainly late 19th century and early 20th century in date, together with hats, shoes and other accessories; The museum has a collection of original and copy images illustrating everyday life, events, buildings and personalities; The museum has a collection of coins and tokens, mainly British and from the local area.

Military

The collection of local militaria consists of uniforms, medals and decorations; sidearms and firearms, personal and general equipment, documents, commemorative material and photographs.

Natural Science

The collections consist of exotic marine molluscs; British moths and butterflies, local dried plants and fungi; world-wide birds eggs and mainly local mounted birds and mammals. The museum also houses the Peterborough Biological Centre.; The collection consists of fossils of reptiles and fish from the local Oxford clays, local Ice Age mammals, British rocks, minerals and invertebrate fossils.

Agriculture Collection

The museum holds examples of Harrison McGregor Albion agricultural machinery (a local manufacturer).

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC