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Personalia Collection

Material relating specifically to Ruskin includes his collection of watercolours, drawings, sketchbooks, letters, books, engravings, visual aids from his art teaching, Brantwood and Grand Tour memorabilia, other personalia including his first bible and items associated with his philosophy and interests. There is also Collingwood’s sculpture of Ruskin, the funeral pall and devotions. Material associated with W G Collingwood includes his popular local artwork, family information and history and also a sculpture of the man by his daughter. There is also an extensive archive related to Sir Malcolm Campbell and his son Donald Campbell (photographs and publications) relating to the world water-speed record attempts on Coniston Water.

Subjects

Personalia

Social History Collection

Social history material relates to the local area of Coniston and the High Furness fells and includes domestic items, the history of the Coniston Institute and also items relating to the history of the lake and its associated activities such as fishing and tourism.

Subjects

Social History

Geology Collection

The mineral collection was originally gifted by Ruskin to the Coniston Institute in 1884. The museum also holds a selection of local volcanic and sedimentary rock samples for ‘hands-on’ study.

Subjects

Geology

Science and Industry Collection

Industrial history includes material, equipment and tools from the local copper mines (exploited from the Bronze Age until the early 20th century) and the slate quarries. There are also arts and crafts objects such as Ruskin Linen and Lace and woodcarving, made by local cottage industries that were inspired by John Ruskin.

Subjects

Science and Industry

Fine Art Collection

The fine art includes a portrait of Ruskin in his old age by W.G. Collingwood, together with works by Ruskin including watercolours and drawings. Most notable works include Ilaria’s tomb in Lucca, Alpine valley, Standing Cloud over the Old Man, Sunset at Herne Hill, the Ducal Palace and an unfinished landscape in the gardens of Brantwood. There are also Ruskin family portraits and paintings of Ruskin’s various homes. Works by other artists include a series of prints by Turner. In addition, there is a dramatic sculpture of a charr by artist-blacksmith Chris Brammall.

Subjects

Fine Art

Agriculture Collection

Tools, artefacts and implements relating to the history of farming and animal husbandry in the area, particularly sheep farming.

Subjects

Agriculture

Archaeology Collection

Local archaeological finds including 2 Bronze Age urns, rough-outs and polished axes from the Stone Age Langdale axe factory and rare items from the Bronze Age.

Subjects

Archaeology

Biology Collection

Natural history material relates to the local area of Coniston and the High Furness fells including the lake as a natural habitat. It includes plant casts.

Subjects

Biology

Transport Collection

Themes include the history of the Coniston railway and the lake as a highway, including a model of an operating passenger craft, the steam-yacht Gondola.

Subjects

Transport

Music Collection

Ruskin’s harmonicon (a slate xylophone).

Subjects

Music

Costume and Textile Collection

Ruskin lace, linen and samplers, some costume and examples of contemporary knitting.

Subjects

Costume and Textile

Decorative and Applied Art Collection

Ruskin Pottery, Coniston School of Carving.

Subjects

Decorative and Applied Arts

Numismatics Collection

Coins and tokens.

Subjects

Numismatics

Photographic Collection

Photographs of local images include the lake, railway, farming, quarrying, former views of the village at Coniston, architecture and a series of images of the Coniston Copper Mines. Personalities include John Ruskin and his friends, and also the Campbells.

Subjects

Photography

Archives Collection

Archives include books, pamphlets, periodicals by and about John Ruskin, Coniston, geology and local history. There is an archive of Donald Campbell/Bluebird press coverage and photographs and engravings and photogravures made to illustrate Ruskin’s books (See also personalia).

Subjects

Archives

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC

Fine Art Collection

Oil paintings: The major strength is in British Victorian paintings. It includes a group by Edwin Long, the Pre-Raphaelites, Albert Moore, Edwin Landseer, William Etty and W P Frith. There are also 17th, 18th and 19th century European paintings and a small number of Italian Renaissance paintings. Collecting in the 1930s and 1940s focused on contemporary paintings including animals, children and portraits. Works by Nevinson and Lamb are included. There is a small number of local topographical views, paintings of local dignitaries and a small but important group of paintings of Maori chiefs by Charles Goldie. Works on paper: The largest category are Victorian by, for example, W Henry Hunt, Clarkson Stanfield, Miles Birket Foster, Lord Leighton and Helen Allingham with marine paintings by W L Wyllie and a group of street scenes by Louise Rayner. There is a small group of English watercolours by Paul Sandby, Munn, Prout and Westall. There are very few prints in the collection. Sculpture: A small collection, largely Victorian in content, containing British, Italian and French bronzes, marble and other stone sculpture. Miniatures: A small collection dating from the 17th century.

Subjects

Fine Art

Decorative and Applied Art Collection

Ceramics: A wide ranging collection, strongest in porcelain, with many of the 18th and the major 19th century British factories represented, especially Wedgwood, Derby and Worcester; and continental factories of Sevres, Meissen and Dresden. There is a small collection of Bournemouth crested and souvenir ware. There is an important group of Italian Maiolica, and 19th century art pottery, Staffordshire figures and Dutch and Bristol tin glazed earthenware. Glass: A small collection consisting of 18th century English drinking glasses, 19th century Bohemian, Venetian and English cut glass and small decorative items such as scent bottles. Furniture: This is used to furnish period room settings and comprises 19th century British and French, with some Venetian, Swiss and Dutch pieces. There is also some mid to late 17th century oak furniture. Jewellery, costume accessories and Victoriana: The jewellery is 19th century European, mainly British, but also French, Scandinavian and Italian in a variety of materials including bone, coral, cut-steel and hair); there are a few gold and silver pieces. The costume accessories are 18th and 19th century fans from India, China, France, Brazil, Holland and Belgium. There are also parasols, shoes, purses, collars, buckles, etc. and a few 17th century items such as coifs and caps. The Victoriana comprises a wide variety of small decorative objects such as carved ivory, cased butterflies, plaques and boxes. Metalwork: Chiefly silver and silver-gilt, although there are a small number of Limoges enamels. The silver is English and continental, mainly presentation pieces of the 19th century, with some earlier. There are some silver items of memorabilia connected with Sir Henry Irving and silver-gilt items presented to the Russell-Cotes. There is a small amount of civic regalia and Russian silver, silver-gilt and enamel. The Oriental art collection comprises about 6000 items from Japan, China, Tibet, Burma, Siam and India. It encompasses ceramics, metalwork, lacquer, carvings, silk hangings and theatrical masks.

Subjects

Decorative and Applied Arts

Personalia Collection

Among the personalia collection are objects relating to Sir Henry Irving, a friend of Sir Merton Russell-Cotes. Photographs, costume, stage props and personal possessions are included.

Subjects

Personalia

Portraits

The Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum is formed around the core of art and objects assembled by our founders and given to the Borough of Bournemouth in 1921. Around this are the collecting responses of subsequent curators. Within the core of Russell-Cotes’ collection of paintings are a number of family related portraits in oils connected to their families in both Staffordshire and Glasgow. We also have two fine portraits of the founders themselves by John Henry Lorimer that reveal their characters rather well. The Russell-Cotes is known for its 19th century art but the collections do also contain some earlier portraits. Leading this group are some attributed to Sir Peter Lely and Sir Godfrey Kneller. Whilst probably not by these artists they are interesting depictions in themselves. Within our 19th century painting collection are a number of portraits of local figures, for example the “founder” of Bournemouth Captain Lewis Dymoke Tregonwell, plus Mayors, Aldermen and other officials. Thanks to the interests of Sir Merton there is a strong theatrical theme to our collections and this is reflected in our portraits of Sir Henry Irving and his circle. The class consciousness of our founders is reflected in a number of portraits of both British and European royalty. The Russell-Cotes’ were also keen world travellers and this is reflected in a small but important collection of portraits of Maoris by Charles Frederick Goldie. After the death of Sir Merton in 1921 the museum’s first curators collected in response to his collection adding a number of fine painted portraits by 20th century artists. Within this group are a number works from the War Artist Advisory Committee. There is also a distinct group of self-portraits through this section of the collection. There are not many portrait drawings in the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum collection but we do hold some significant works and most of them fall into this 20th century section. Much of the sculpture in our collection is by 19th century European artists and most of our portrait busts are of eminent Victorians, often reflecting our founder’s political leanings and the sort of persons they admired. Writers, actors, royalty, military figures, artists, and political figures are all reflected in the collection.

Subjects

Artists; Air force; Actors; Boy scouts; Army; Parliamentarians; First English Civil War (1642-1646); Navy; Second World War (1939-1945); Royalists; Royal portraits; Royal family

Ancient Egyptian Collection

The museum holds 150 ancient Egyptian objects which are part of the Archaeology collection. Classes of objects represented in the collection include: amulets; faience figures; jewellery; animal remains (mummies); human remains (mummies); pottery; scarabs; shabtis; stelae; stone figures; stone vessels; textiles; wooden figures.

Subjects

Antiquities; Ancient civilizations; Antiquity; Archaeological sites; Archaeological objects; Egyptology; Archaeological excavations

Biology Collection

This collection includes shells from different continents; and Victorian taxidermy (mammals, birds and butterflies).

Subjects

Biology

Theatrical Collection

This collection contains a variety of theatrical artefacts including a small collection of material relating to Sir Henry Irving and his contemporaries Ellen Terry and Lewis Waller. There are also items from the Lyceum Theatre including prompt books, programmes, playbills, paintings, drawings, photographs, ephemera and some costume and personal items. The Art Gallery and Museum also includes a number of European puppets, Japanese Noh-theatre masks, Japanese musical instruments, Japanese and Chinese puppets, Indian and African dance accessories and musical instruments, South East Asian and Pacific dance accessories.; Summary of Henry Irving items on public display available on request. Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth County Council.

Subjects

19th century; Theatre history; Prompt books; Japanese Noh theatre; Theatre programs; Theatrical posters; Playbills; Costume; Puppets; Masks; Indian masks; Musical instruments

Geology Collection

The geology is composed of 202 large, cut slabs of sedimentary, igneous and conglomerate rock set into concrete – the ‘Geological Terrace’. There are also a small number of boxed fragments.

Subjects

Geology

Numismatics Collection

A collection of coins, medals, seals and tokens from Britain, Sweden, Russia, Spain, Austria, Greece, Japan, Thailand, China and Siam.

Subjects

Numismatics

Archaeology Collection

A substantial part of the material excavated from Hengistbury Head is held, together with small numbers of Palaeolithic hand axes, and Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman material found in the Bournemouth area. There is also a collection of 24 Pre-Columbian pottery vessels and figurines and Egyptian antiquities, mostly from the late period.

Subjects

Archaeology

Costume and Textile Collection

This comprises mainly female costumes of the mid to late 19th century and early 20th century. There are a small number of early 17th century items, also military uniforms, Chinese silk shirts and coats, and some garments worn by Sir Henry Irving, his family and associates.

Subjects

Costume and Textile

Ethnography Collection

This collection comprises artefacts from New Zealand and Polynesia, Melanesia (particularly Fiji, the Solomon Islands and New Guinea), Micronesia, Australia, the Americas, and West, North, South and Central Africa. The majority of the artefacts are weapons, cooking and eating utensils, jewellery and body ornament, masks and figures.

Subjects

Ethnography

Maritime Collection

This collection comprises coins from the wreck of HMS Association and 19th and 20th century oil paintings. There are some items of 19th century chandlery such as a sextant, compass and telescope, and various large wooden models of ships.

Subjects

Maritime

Music Collection

The collection is of 19th century musical instruments of Japanese, African, English and continental origin, with a few earlier and later pieces. It covers stringed instruments (most numerous), keyboard and wind. Mechanical instruments, drums and idiophones are African and Japanese; English examples are pianos, two flutes and a harp.

Subjects

Music

Social History Collection

Items of local significance include postcards, photographs, items relating to World War II, some civic regalia and a small amount of domestic equipment. An archive of the Bournemouth Orchestras is also kept consisting of concert programmes, posters, sheet music, photographs and other memorabilia.

Subjects

Social History

Arms and Armour Collection

The collection comprises English, Japanese and Indian edged weapons and firearms (mainly 19th century). The Sherrin bequest contains these and also weapons of Malaysian, Singalese, Nepalese, Turkish, North African, Chinese and Tibetan origin. The rest of the collection comprises Siamese swords, Indian and European armour (including mid to late 17th century Italian helmets), 20th century Samurai armour and weaponry.

Subjects

Arms and Armour

Other

Subjects

Medals; Medicine; Photography; Science and Industry; Transport

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC

The history of the Parish of Rustington was first documented in several books by local historian Mary Taylor in the 1980’s. The research for these books created such a vast amount of material relating to the history of Rustington village that it was suggested that this material should be collected, preserved and made more accessible to the local community. In 1983 the Rustington Heritage Association (RHA) was formed. In 1988 premises were found for an exhibition room at Rustington Parish Council offices. A license was negotiated between the RHA and Rustington Parish Council for the lease of two rooms; one for an exhibition space and one for the RHA’s office and store. The exhibition space was opened to the public by the RHA in September 1989 until it closed in 2007.

The RHA achieved full Registered Museum status in February 2001 as part of the first national minimum standards scheme. It was subsequently awarded full Accredited Museum status by the MLA in November 2006.

In 2005 Rustington Parish Council purchased Church Farm Cottages at 76/78 The Street in Rustington, for use as the new premises for a bigger, improved Museum service. It was agreed that Rustington Parish Council would finance the new museum, premises, equipment and staffing and the RHA would retain ownership of the collection. In 2012 Rustington Parish Council expressed a wish to commence collecting for a separate Parish Council Museum collection. In 2013 it was agreed that the RHA would agree to a loan of their existing collection with new acquisitions to be added to the new Rustington Parish Council collection. All items donated to Rustington Museum are now added to the new Parish Council collection.

Following a successful HLF grant awarded in 2018, the Museum moved into new premises in November 2019. The new space is much better suited to showing the history of Rustington in a cohesive format and includes visitor experiences, such as interactive stations. A temporary exhibition area allows a changing programme of events and a space to hold activities and talks during the day. In the evening, the main gallery has space to host talks. Holding such events was not always possible in the previous building due to lack of space. The Museum shares the building with a Community Hall and the Village Information Centre. Facilities for the storage of the Museum collection remain at the Parish Council offices, though a small store is located on site.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2022

Licence: CC BY-NC

The Rustington Museum Parish Council Collection consists of approximately 328 accession entries at November 2019. The RHA Collection on loan to the Rustington Museum Parish Council Collection consists of approximately 2026 accession entries. The collecting area for Rustington Museum covers the village of Rustington and adjacent villages (not covered by Littlehampton or Worthing Museum’s collection areas). The RHA’s loaned Museum Collection does have items relating to areas outside of this area. This will be looked at as part of the Future Plan due to restricted storage and the on-going relevance of the collections.

RHA Collection

RHA Collection (on loan to Rustington Parish Council collection) currently contains approximately 2026 entries in the Accession Register (one entry could contain several items). Not all the collection is recorded on MODES. It features the following areas of note:

Archaeology

Approx. 20 items accessioned as of November 2019. Predominantly Romano-British pottery and ceramics and post-medieval materials from the collecting district.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s the Sussex Archaeological Society oversaw two excavations in Rustington during the construction of the A259 bypass and the adjacent Sainsbury’s store. Some material from these excavations is in the RHA’s Collection. However, as there was no Museum as such in Rustington, many finds were donated to the Littlehampton Museum collection as Rustington was within their collecting area at the time. Rustington Museum’s archaeological collection also includes chance finds and material from field walking and metal detecting.

Rustington Museum concentrates on finds and material from within the Rustington area. This collecting area was established in agreement with the Archaeological Working Party of the Sussex Museums Group and the County Archaeologists for East and West Sussex.

Social History

Approx. 1700 items accessioned in the collection as of November 2019. Items relating to all aspects of the collection not covered by the other categories. It is a large and varied collection relating to general domestic, social, corporate, commercial and occupational life.

In general, the Social History section covers all historical material that is not specifically covered by another section. It is, therefore, large and varied. There are extensive collections of material relating to domestic, social, corporate, commercial and occupational life. The collections relate primarily to the Rustington area in particular.

Documents, Archives and Maps

Approx. 470 items accessioned at November 2019. Collection is presently being organised into to a subject index format and entered onto MODES. Selection of paper documents, ephemera, pamphlets, posters, maps and misc. material relating to Rustington.

Photographs and Postcards

Approx. 510 accessioned items on MODES at November 2019. Photographs and postcards of all subjects pertaining to Rustington, its people and the collecting district.

Fine and Decorative Art (Paintings, Drawings, Prints and Ceramics)

Approx.15 accessioned items at November 2019. Selection of local scenes on varying media; oil, watercolour, including examples from local artists. Several pieces of local pottery.

Notable Collection: Count Albert de Belleroche (1864–1944) – lithographs.

Belleroche was a painter of portraits and genre, and lithographer; influenced by Impressionism. He studied under Carolus-Duran in Paris and shared a studio with John Singer-Sargent in Paris and London. He worked in France until 1911 when he married and settled in England, living first in Hampstead and after 1918 at The Manor House in Rustington, Sussex.

He died in Nottingham in 1944. Retrospective exhibitions at the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, 1942, the Salon d’Automne 1947, the Leicester Galleries 1954 (drawings), and Arthur Tooth & Sons 1955 (paintings).

Textiles / Costumes

6 items (uniforms and clothes) at November 2019.

Old Cottage Toy Collection

18 accessioned Old Cottage Dolls at November 2019

Rustington Museum Parish Council Collection

Old Cottage Toy Collection

21 accessioned dolls at November 2019, made by local cottage industry in Rustington.

Fine Art

21 accessioned paintings at November 2019.

Drawings and lino cuts by Count William de Belleroche, Count Albert de Belleroche’s son and a great friend and biographer of Frank Brangwyn. William de Belleroche was an artist in his own right as well as a promoter of his father’s work.

Archaeology

A bulk accession of Archaeology was made in 2016. Not individually listed

Ephemera and Collectibles

328 accession register entries at November 2019, which include all of the above.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2022

Licence: CC BY-NC

Social History Collection

Local significance Collections relating to history of Rutland.

Subjects

Local history; Social history

Archaeology Collection

Local significance Collection includes collection formally at Oakham School.

Subjects

Archaeology

Costume and Textiles Collection

Collection of items in social history collections. Local significance.

Subjects

Textiles; Costume

Decorative and Applied Arts Collection

Local significance. A small collection of decorative and fine art is held.

Subjects

Fine arts; Decorative arts

Numismatics Collection

A collection of numismatics. Local significance.

Subjects

Numismatics; Coins; Coin collections

Science and Industry Collection

Local significance Small collection relating to local industry.

Subjects

Trade (practice); Local history; Industry

Fine Art Collection

Local significance. A small collection of decorative and fine art is held.

Subjects

Fine arts; Decorative arts

Agriculture Collection

Local significance. Well established collection of agricultural implements and machinery and tools and equipment of rural tradesmen. Include mainly rural life collection of Mr EG Bolton from Casterton Secondary School, acquired 1967.

Subjects

Agriculture; Agricultural implements; Tradesmen; Country life; Agricultural equipment

Military Collection

Collection relating to the Rutland Corps. Local significance.

Subjects

Military history; Military heritage; Volunteers; Military life; Armed forces

Photography Collection

Local significance Collection of photographs.

Subjects

Photographs

Archives Collection

Local significance. Printed ephemera and simple social history and family history archive material, other archives deposited at Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland Record Office.

Subjects

Printed ephemera; Local history; Archives; Genealogy

Library Collection

Local significance. The small library has printed material on local history, family history, agriculture and archaeology.

Subjects

Agriculture; Local history; Archaeology; Farming

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC

Archaeology Collection

The Hayes collection forms the core supplemented by the Rowland Collection on loan and a number of casual finds and donations. Hayes Collection is finds from Mesolithic sites over North Yorks Moors, Iron Age- Costa Beck site, Roman and Medieval sites throughout Ryedale including Thornton Risebrough, Rosedale glass furnace and Baysdale and Rosedale iron workings. Rowland Collection includes flint arrowheads from moorland sites; Iron Age urns, pottery and antler from Nanny Howe and Stony Rigg; Romano- British material including urns, pottery from Kildale and other sites; Ryedale windypits bone ,pottery and bronze. Loaned items include the 10th century Anglo-Saxon stone cross fragments from Kirkbymoorside Parochial Church Council.

Subjects

Archaeology

Agriculture Collection

Significant collection of hand and horse powered tools and machinery from the immediate dales ranging in date from 1860 to 1950 and extensive collections on arable farming, cattle and the working horse; allied activities are represented by peat and turf cutting tools and veterinary equipment. Agricultural machinery from local manufacturers Russels and Bamletts.

Subjects

Agriculture

Costume and Textile Collection

Comprises mainly women’s ‘best’ clothes, with emphasis on birth, marriage and death; some late 19th century working skirts and nursing uniforms. Small amount of military costume. Earliest costume of 1840, ranges to 1950.

Subjects

Costume and Textile

Transport Collection

Comprehensive collection of farm transport especially horse drawn vehicles from 1860 -1930 period also an 1860s Merryweather fire engine, 1830s Farndale horse-drawn hearse, 1920s Yorkshire Bow top open caravan, dog cart and various hand carts.

Subjects

Transport

Science and Industry Collection

Extensive collections of tools and machinery of 1860 -1930 from local crafts and trades; blacksmiths, tinsmiths, coopers, saddlers, cobbling, clog making, besom making and wheelwrights. Glass furnace of 1562-1600 date excavated in Rosedale produced distinctive green forest glass by French and Flemish craftsmen; small numbers of local 19th century brewery and cordial bottles. Iron production and working collection -19th century foundry equipment from Rosedale.

Subjects

Science and Industry

Social History Collection

This collection covering domestic, personal and community is large and has examples from hunting, folklore, witchcraft, semi-religious orders, laundry, food preparation, lighting, toilet ware, personal hygiene and textiles.

6 buildings erected on site are important regionally viz:- Harome Manor House -16th century cruck built under thatch with random rubble walls has 17th century flooring, panelling and staircase at one end- is one of the largest examples of cruck construction in Northern England. Stang End, another thatched cruck building, late 16th or early 17th century built as a long house with living accommodation at one end and animals at the other with across passage, many original features; smoke hood, salt and spice boxes, wich post, and panelling.External walls pierced for extra windows in 17th and 18th centuries and front door remodelled in 1704. Harome Cottege is a 19th century remodelling of an early cruck house under thatch with random rubble walls; inside local Victorian cast iron parlour and kitchen ranges with box beds on 1st storey. These 3 buildings and the Crifters Cottage, a reproduction building using old crucks chronicle the use and development of crucks in the area. William and Raymond Hayes( the photographers) daylight photographic studio, first built in York in 1902, re-erected in Hutton -le-Hole in 1911 and moved to the museumin 1989 – oldest extant daylight studio in the country. Sectional builingon a wooden frame with ptg matchboarding clad externally with corrugated iron. Wheel House, typical N Yorks. 18th century hexagonal extension to a barn, with overhead gearing fro a horse driven threshing machine, built on dressed sandstone pillars under a pantile roof.

Subjects

Social History; Building (domestic)

Photographic Collection

In addition to the studio and contents of William and Raymond Hayes there is the Raymond Hayes collection of 10,000 prints and negatives donated by the RCHME.

Subjects

Photographic equipment

Archives Collection

Has several cross discipline collections including the Crosland papers, archaeological records from the Hayes collection, joiner and agricultural machinery manufacturers and the Parker manuscript.

Subjects

Archives

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC

The origins of Saddleworth Museum lie in a trip abroad. In the late 1950s when Roger Tanner MBE who was founder of the museum took a trip to Norway and found himself in a little village called Bodo which was on the edge of the Artic Circle and had a population of around 10,000. To his surprise the village had a substantial museum devoted to all aspects of the history of the local community,was impressed. It was very well laid out and the thought came to me …. If they can do that here, we can do it in Saddleworth. The dream began then and I came home with this amazing idea. I began to contact friends to tell them of my enthusiasm and, of course, at that time it was a case of ‘A Museum in Saddleworth — but where?’ At the time in the late 1950s Saddleworth’s villages were very much working ones but the textile industry was in decline, mills starting to close, weavers cottages in decline and in some cases being demolished and there was a nee to preserve some of our local history before it was lost.

To establish a museum a suitable building was needed and after various searches around Saddleworth it fell on the fact the Victoria Mill which was on the site of the museum car park was about to be demolished and the owners were willing to sell one of the outbuildings which had previously been used as a steam room.

It was to take three years of hard work, mostly by volunteers to get rid of the dry rot and etc. with the museum finally opening to the public in May 1962.

Appeals had gone out to the public for donations for the museum collection with particular reference to historical items relating to Saddleworth, though this was achieved the museum acquired numerous social history items not directly with a local connection but representative of what would have been used in the area.

By the 1970s the collection had outgrown the old mill and a project to extend the museum with a gallery area overlooking the adjacent Huddersfield Narrow Canal was started with funding basically on the theme of ‘Buy a Brick’, hence the project was mainly funded by local people it usefully opened in 1979.

In 2007 we started ‘Into the Future’, a project in which we envisaged a major refurbishment of the buildings and particularly the old mill building which had a leaking roof and all services needinng replaceme, we needed to establish full disabled access, improve our exhibitions , improve our collection storage etc., etc. We gained round 1Heritage Lottery funding of £65.000. The museum had to make three applications to the Heritage Lottery for Round 2 funding with each application being actively encouraged to reapply by the HLF. In September 2014 we won HLF grant of £1.046,000 for refurbishment and inclusive of funding for a three year Learning Officer post. The project was completed in September 2016.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2016

Licence: CC BY-NC

The collections are essentially organised under a series of subject headings including Social History (general material – a lot of items originated from Victorian period, Archives (including documents, maps, photographs etc., relating to the local area), Archaeology (includes flints, arrowheads collected locally and a few items such as axe heads non local and items excavated at Castleshaw Roman Camp), Costume (a mixed collection which is currently under review) – see Disposals paragraph. Gallery (a collection of photographs, paintings etc – many local paintings – the collection is currently under review as archive material was added to this collection simply because it was framed).

Significant pieces include in the Archaeology (a) Viking Gold Ring – Accession No found in stream at Nutbottom, Greenfield – copy as the original is in British Museum / (b) Roman wooden vallus used as palisade, not complete but a rare piece /

Significant items in Archives include (a) M/HUT – Messrs. Hutchinson, Hollingworth & Co. Ltd., Loom Makers, Dobcross, Near Oldham – Saddleworth Museum holds wages books for, this company covering 100 years of loom making from 1861 to 1961 and, also, information to the company’s early associations with woollen textile manufacturing companies and on James Hollingworth ‘s transactions in lands and properties. James Hollingworth, orginally a joiner and builder, Joined John Hutchinson in 1861 in a project of loom building. When Mr. Hutchinson, the senior Partner, retired in 1874 the firm became a limited liability company with James Hollingworth as Managing Director. By 1880 the firm had 200 employees and a production rate of 20 to 25 looms per week. Further expansion occurred in the later 1880’s after James Hollingworth secured certain manufacturing and marketing rights on loom patents held by the Knowles (later Crompton & Knowles ) Loom works, Mass. U. S.A. James Hollingworth died in 1895 and was followed as M.D. and then chairman’s by his son Edward, who died in 1928. The firm ceased manufacturing in the late 1960 `s. / (b) M/HOW croft – Howcroft family: local politics (Mayor of Oldham 1937) they were architects and collection includes architects drawings of a number of local buildings including proposed and final drawings Saddleworth War Memorial 1923 / (c) M/AW Ammon Wrigley — Poet/Writer 1861-1946 was a poetArvriter who was recognised in his lifetime as a vivid interpreter of moorland and village life in and around Saddleworth in the local dialect and in plain English. A self-taught artist of some competence he was also an amateur antiquary with particular interests in Roman remains and prehistoric microliths. Most of his long working life was spent in woollen mills.

Significant items in Gallery collection include (a) ten oil paintings illustrating local villages -Accession Nos – specially commissioned from local artist John McCombs N.O.D. / R. 0.1. / R. B.A. / FR.S.A. / PM.A.F.A – (b) – collection of twelve large watercolour paitings depicting the flora of the Saddleworth area oer a year painted by Joan Charnley a professional botanical illutrator and designer.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2016

Licence: CC BY-NC

The collections are owned by Saffron Walden Museum Society Ltd, UK registered charity 1123209, which founded the Museum in the 1830s to house its collections (then known as the Saffron Walden Natural History Society). Society members were local gentlemen of learned interests and far-flung contacts, allowing them to acquire collections from all over the world, notably in ethnography and the natural sciences, as well as closer to home. Pre-eminent among the Museum’s founders were John Player, a retired civil servant from the Admiralty, and Jabez Gibson, a member of a prominent local Quaker family of brewers and bankers. Later nineteenth century collectors continued to enrich the Museum, such as George Stacey Gibson’s herbaria and fossil collections, Joseph Clarke’s collection of antiquities and the fine collections of ceramics and glass made by William Tuke (another Quaker family of note) and Dr Henry Stear. Until the 1880s members of the Society curated the collections but in 1880 the first professional curator, George Nathan Maynard, was appointed. The Society continued to run the Museum directly, with the aid of grants from various sources, until 1974, when the newly established Uttlesford District Council took over the operation of the Museum Service. Saffron Walden Museum Society leases the Museum collections and buildings to Uttlesford District Council under a joint management agreement (revised 2004, 2009 and 2014). Under this agreement, the Museum Service’s governing body is the Museum Management Working Group, a joint committee of representatives from Saffron Walden Museum Society Ltd and Uttlesford District Council.

The collections of Saffron Walden Museum, estimated to be about 170,000 objects and specimens, have been developed since 1832. Initially collecting was widespread, reflecting the diverse interests and contacts of the Society membership, and covered natural and human history from around the world, as well as objects and specimens local to north west Essex. Many of the Museum’s most important ethnographic items were collected in its early decades.

In the twentieth century, the rise of social history and archaeology as museum disciplines and the disposal of many of the older exotic animal mounted specimens in the early 1960s led to a greater focus on the immediate district (now Uttlesford). That process of refining and targeting collecting continues in the twenty-first century. The Museum must also balance the demands placed by developments such as Stansted Airport, which are producing large volumes of archaeological material, with finite resources. The off-site store and subsequent adjustments to the Museum buildings will set a finite spatial limit on sustainable collecting for the foreseeable future.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2019

Licence: CC BY-NC

The scope of the collections is summarised below under headings to reflect the dual local (north-west Essex) and global range of subjects covered. In general, the Museum’s collecting area will be defined by relevance to Uttlesford District, the area of north-west Essex defined by the local authority boundary of Uttlesford District Council.

Occasionally offers of appropriate objects or specimens may be accepted for subjects which are non-local by their nature, such as ethnography, as described below. The time span within which the Museum collects also varies according to subject. For the archaeology and history of Uttlesford, all periods from earliest prehistoric to today are relevant. For geological collections, the time-frame extends backwards to include Pleistocene remains and beyond that fossils from the Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and Caenozoic eras.

Human History and Culture of north-west Essex, and its regional and British context

1. Archaeology – excavated finds and records from Uttlesford, all periods from prehistoric to post medieval, and finds made as a result of other fieldwork or by chance. Historically, the Museum also holds some antiquarian finds from the region and further afield.
2. Social and Local History: objects, ephemera and documents – made or used in Uttlesford, or associated with local places and people
3. Pictorial: Prints, Watercolours, Paintings, Drawings and Photographs reflecting the history, people and natural history of Uttlesford, but excluding ‘fine art’
4. Costume, Textiles, Needlework and Accessories – range of English and local.
5. Ceramics and Glass – British and European ceramics and glassware, 16th – 20th century (decorative arts).
6. Woodwork and Furniture – local and English domestic woodwork of 14th – 18th century and a small collection of English furniture of 16th-18th century

Natural Environment of north-west Essex and its regional and British context

The natural science collections contain about 70,000 specimens of plants, animals, rocks, minerals and fossils. The founders of the Museum and other 19th century naturalists presented most of these specimens. They collected in Essex and the rest of Britain.

1. Plants – specimens of flowering plants, ferns, mosses, liverworts, fungi, lichens and algae
2. Animals – mammals, birds, birds’ eggs, amphibians, reptiles, fish, insects, molluscs and other invertebrate groups
3. Fossils – fossils from Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and Caenozoic eras of geological time
4. Minerals and Rocks – minerals; sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks

Human History and Culture – the wider world

1. Mediterranean and Egyptian antiquities – a small collection including pre-dynastic to Ptolemaic artefacts and one Roman-period mummy from Egypt, and pottery from Greece and Cyprus.
2. Ethnography (world cultures) – a collection of international significance, over 4,000 objects mostly collected between the late 18th and early 20th centuries, all continents and many different cultures represented.

Natural Environment – the wider world

Specimens illustrating the natural environments of continents around the world.

1. Plants – plants collected outside Britain in the 19th century
2. Animals – animals collected outside Britain during the 19th and early 20th centuries
3. Geology – rocks, minerals and fossils found outside Britain

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2019

Licence: CC BY-NC

The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (SCVA) opened in 1978 with the support of one of the nation’s great philanthropic families. Sir Robert and Lady Sainsbury donated one of the most extraordinary yet non-conformist art collections in the world which includes works dating from prehistory to the present day and from all across the globe. Robert Sainsbury had started collecting around 1929 and in 1937 he married Lisa van den Bergh from which point the collection became a joint one. They said that a person’s relationship with a work of art was more akin to the relationship with another person than with an inanimate object. In 1973 Robert and Lisa donated their art collection to the University and their son, David (Lord Sainsbury of Turville), funded the museum building on the university campus. The building was designed by Norman Foster (Baron Foster of Thames Bank) and now has grade II* listed status. For the Sainsburys, the power of art was universal and amplified by the active conversations between works across time and culture of origin. To achieve this alternative way of ‘doing art’ they ended up needing an entirely different type of art museum to be built.

Today the Centre holds one of the most impressive art collections outside of the national institutions. Alongside the works donated by Robert and Lisa Sainsbury the Centre’s holdings have continued to grow and now form some 5,000 works in total. Shortly after the Centre opened in 1978, Sir Colin Anderson a friend of Robert and Lisa donated a collection of works related to the Art Nouveau movement. A collection dedicated to Abstract and Constructivist Art had been established by the University in 1968 and was fully absorbed into the Centre’s holdings in 1990. The Sainsbury Centre has since benefited from a number of benefactors who have supported the growth of the art collection. The collection continues to grow in a judicial and sustainable manner. The Sainsbury Centre is committed to the collaborative study and presentation of its collection.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2022

Licence: CC BY-NC

The Sainsbury collections are of international importance and consist of works of human creativity dating from prehistory to the present day from across the globe, celebrating the universality of art and human creativity. There are major holdings of art from Oceania, Africa, the Americas, Asia, the ancient Mediterranean classical cultures of Egypt, Greece and Rome, and medieval Europe. The Centre is particularly strong holdings of Twentieth Century Art including significant number of works by Pablo Picasso (5 works), Jacob Epstein, Francis Bacon (13 works), Henry Moore (34 works), Alberto Giacometti (36 works), Elisabeth Frink (29), Amedeo Modigliani (3 works), Leonora Carrington, Edgar Degas – including his famous sculpture, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, one of the most important works in the collection. The collection is perhaps most notable for its collection of sculpture from ancient to modern. However, there is a significant body of paintings not least from the School of London and École de Paris of the post second world war period. There is a strong preference for lyrical abstraction and Tachism, art movements that flourished in France from 1945 to roughly 1960 and exhibit an expressive calligraphic style, away from the hard-edged geometric abstraction of the pre-war period. Notable artists included in the collection are Jean Fautrier, Charles Maussion, Mübin Orhon, André Lanskoy, Léon Zack, Bernard Dufour, and JeanMarie Calmettes. From the School of London, there are outstanding works by Frank Auerbach and a remarkable group of 13 paintings by Francis Bacon, perhaps the single most important British painter of the last century. Full details on all of the individual works in the collections is publicly available through the online catalogue that is actively promoted and includes all available information on provenance and history.

There are significant and extensive holdings of Abstract Art, notably those artists associated with Constructivism, the English Vorticists, the Russian Suprematists, the Dutch De Stijl Group and the German Bauhaus School. There are international artists working in the field of abstract and Constructivist Art such as Josef Albers. Lygia Clark. Sonia Delaunay, Sofie Taeuber-Arp, Eduardo Chillida, Raoul Dufy, Jean Tonguely, Cesar Domela, Charles Biederman, John Ernest and Hans Hartung.

The highlights by British artists include works by Victor Pasmore, Mary Martin, Gillian Wise, Kenneth Martin, Anthony Hill, Anthony Caro, Stephen Gilbert, Michael Kidner, Winfield Nicholson, Tess Jaray. There are a significant and important group of sculptures by the important British artist Robert Adams. The collection includes furniture and architectural models as well as paintings, sculpture, reliefs, multiples, and works on paper.

There are significant and extensive holdings of studio ceramics. The collection includes a major group of work by Lucie Rie and Hans Coper of national and international importance. It also includes major works by Bernard Leach and Shōji Hamada, James Tower, Ewen Henderson, Claudi Casanovas, Rupert Spira, Jennifer Lee, Julian Stair, Sara Radstone, Gabriele Koch, and Ian Godfrey.

There is notable collection of works relating the Art Nouveau period of national importance. It represents the French exponents of Art Nouveau associated with the École de Nancy and makers who, both in France and Britain, worked across a range of disciplines and materials such as glassware and furniture, metalware and jewellery. The collection includes pieces by leading exponents of Art Nouveau such as Louis Comfort Tiffany, Émile Gallé and René Lalique.

The permanent art collection is principally displayed across the ground floor of the museum. The collection extends outside across the campus Sculpture Park. In the 20th Century, the Sainsbury Centre was one of the first museums in the world to display art from all around the world and from all time periods equally and collectively. In the 21st Century it is the first museum in the world to formally recognise the living lifeforce of art. It continues to break boundaries with how the power of humanity is encapsulated and communicated to anyone who comes to visit. The Sainsbury Centre is an institution that transcends traditional barriers between Art, Architecture, Archaeology and Anthropology and focuses collectively on shared essential questions within which the material manifestations of human creativity are given voice to answer them.

The creation of the Living Area display in the 1970s was one of the first times in any museum setting that different works of art from across the world were displayed equally and in conversation across a contemporary gallery platform. We welcome this platform of equality and open engagement with the power of works of art activated to address issues of meaningful human learning and understanding. In 1978 an unencumbered relationship with art was prioritised above telling people how they should enjoy it. Releasing the anima of works of art through views from lived experience, practitioner and scholarship can help engage people in sharing stories and building relationships with works of art. The Sainsbury Centre is committed to making sure that all collection information, provenance research and diverse interpretations are publicly accessible. This is how stories can be shared and art can help engage people with the fundamental questions of humanity. Acquisitions to the collection are an important part of this equation.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2022

Licence: CC BY-NC

Maritime Collection

This is the principle theme of Salcombe Museum and the collection contains paintings, ships logs and other objects relating to ships and shipping; tools relevant to small boat building, boat yard work and sailmaking; information and photographs about boat building families; photographs, documents and charts about ship wrecks and rescues; photographs, newspaper reports and a model about lifeboats; and photographs, equipment and charts about fishing.

Subjects

Maritime

Social History Collection

The collection includes artefacts, photographs, genealogical information and Wartime memorabilia of life in Salcombe.

Subjects

Social History

Archaeology Collection

There is a small number of Greek and Roman artefacts.

Subjects

Archaeology

Photographic Collection

There are photographs of all aspects of maritime life around Salcombe and about the local history of the town and its locality.

Subjects

Photography

Archives Collection

The collection includes maps, family trees and documents relating to wrecks, lifeboat history, the fishing industry, customs documents relating to the First and Second World Wars and ships logs.

Subjects

Archives

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC

Archaeology Collection

Stonehenge is the most famous, and one of the most enigmatic, archaeological sites in Britain. The Stonehenge collection is displayed, with artefacts from excavations at the site including a stone wrist guard and arrowheads found with a burial in the ditch; and a fine stone macehead. There is also an extensive collection of engravings and paintings of the site and its landscape. The Pitt Rivers Collection comprises material amassed and excavated by Lt Gen Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers (1827-1900), the father of modern archaeology, in the late 19th century. It includes finds from Pitt Rivers major excavations, chiefly on prehistoric and Roman date, on his estate in Cranborne Chase; archaeological material he acquired from elsewhere; a small amounts of ethnographic and social history material. The medieval collections from Salisbury and its locality are particularly important. Moved from the site at Old Sarum, where the first Cathedral was built in the 11th century, the new city of Salisbury was planned and laid out in the early 13th century. There are finds from the city itself and also from surrounding sites including Ivychurch Priory, the Royal Palace at Clarendon, the deserted medieval village at Gomeldon and the pottery kilns at Laverstock. The Drainage Collection, retrieved from the city’s drains, is one of the finest early collections of keys, buckles, cutlery, spurs, horse trappings and pilgrim badges. The Neolithic and Bronze Age collections include finds from the Neolithic henge monument at Durrington Walls, Easton Down flint mines, and many of the barrow cemeteries of Neolithic and Bronze Age date in the locality. There is a particuarly fine early Bronze Age burial from Shrewton, complete with its beaker and bronze dagger. This is the core strength of this museum and the collection for which it is designated. The collection is strong in all periods from the palaeolithic to the post-medieval period, though its prehistory and medieval collections are particularly fine. In addition to material mentioned under Strengths, the collection has many artefacts from the excavations of Roman pottery kilns by Heywood Sumner and others in the New Forest; the mosaic from Downton Roman villa; finds from the many Saxon cemeteries which have been found in the valleys around Salisbury; and the Wilton hanging bowl.

Subjects

Archaeology (cemeteries); Archaeology (industrial); Archaeology; World Cultures; Archaeology (settlement)

Fine Art Collection

The collection is particularly strong on images of Salisbury Cathedral, City and Stonehenge. There are five watercolours by J M W Turner and one sketch by Constable. Other works are topographical views, pictures of local personalities and works by local artists.

Subjects

Fine Art

Numismatics Collection

There is a collection of English coins of all periods. The Pitt Rivers Collection includes the Durden Collection of Iron Age coins from Hod Hill and the Warne Collection. There are 17th and 19th century tokens and jettons.

Subjects

Numismatics

Biology Collection

There is a collection of mounted birds (the Marsh collection); a few mammals; part of the Sir Christopher Andrewes collection of flies, wasps, ants and bees; some butterflies and moths; and a 19th century herbarium, the Hussey collection, of specimens from the UK and Switzerland. The most important items are a mounted group of Great Bustards, the largest British land bird, which became extinct in England in the 19th century.

Subjects

Biology

Decorative and applied Art Collection

The Brixie Jarvis Wedgwood collection is an excellent representation of both the useful and ornamental wares made by Wedgwood in the 18th and 19th centuries. It includes some notable rarities such as the ‘Frog’ plate, from a dinner service made by Wedgwood in 1773-74 for Catherine the Great of Russia. It bears a hand-painted view of Mount Edgcumbe, Devon. There is a representative collection of 17th to 20th century wares based upon the Wilkes and Blackmore bequests; and a collection of approximately 600 pieces of Wedgwood from the Jarvis collection. English glass is represented mainly by drinking vessels. Rare and unusual items include a complete set of the Five Senses and a dated inkwell of 1750 from the Bow factory; an 18th century saltglaze stoneware jug in the form of a bear; a Lambeth earthenware fuddling cup; and a 19th century Staffordshire figure of Latimer and Ridley burned at the stake. The collection contains a few pieces of important local furniture including two mayoral chairs of the 17th century. There is a small collection of Salisbury-made silver.

Subjects

Ceramics; Decorative and Applied Arts

Costume and Textile Collection

The collection is strongest in 18th and 19th century local costume, lace and embroidery, with women’s dresses predominating. Among important material is a lady’s riding habit of c.1795; a volunteer uniform of Captain Swayne, 1812; a large collection of local smocks; and some fine silk robes from the collection of the illustrator B H Brock. Amongst the embroideries are two exceptional pieces of 17th century stumpwork. There are also dolls, one reputedly dressed by Marie Antoinette. Wiltshire had a lace making trade and fine lace, prickings, bobbins and worked samples of patterns of the Downton lace industry feature.

Subjects

Costume and Textile

Ancient Egyptian Collection

The museum holds about 25 ancient Egyptian objects. Classes of objects represented in the collection include: flints; other. The flints are claimed to have been the first flint flakes and cores to have been discovered in situ in the stratified gravels of the Nile Valley. They were discovered by Pitt Rivers. Associated with the objects are a whole range of papers, including correspondence and reports.

Subjects

Antiquities; Ancient civilizations; Antiquity; Archaeology; Egyptology

Medals Collection

There are military and commemorative medals.

Subjects

Medals

Music Collection

There are two instruments, a viola and a cello, made by Benjamin Banks (1727-1795), who was born and lived in Salisbury.

Subjects

Music

Social History Collection

There is local history material from the Salisbury from post-medieval times to the present day, including local trade, guild and civic items. The Salisbury Giant and Hob Nob, pageant figures of the Guild of Merchant Taylors, are noteworthy. A range of domestic items includes material mainly of 19th century date.

Subjects

Social History

Arms and Armour Collection

There is a small collection of militaria, including some costume; and some locally made guns.

Subjects

Arms and Armour

Ethnography Collection

The Pitt Rivers collection contains a small amount of ethnographic material.

Subjects

Ethnography

Geology Collection

There is a good collection of chalk fossils from South Wiltshire.

Subjects

Geology

Transport Collection

The most notable item is the Downton fire engine, made by Nuttall and Company of London in 1768.

Subjects

Transport

Medicine Collection

There is a reconstruction of a pre-National Health Service local doctor’s surgery. Dr Philip Neighbour practiced in Amesbury for many years in the middle of the 20th century.

Subjects

Medicine

Photographic Collection

The photographic collection features local views of the Salisbury and its locality, and pictures of local personalities and trades.

Subjects

Photography

Archives Collection

The archive collection includes the important Pitt Rivers papers, relating to Pitt Rivers’ collection; his activities as the first inspector of ancient monuments; and his considerable correspondence. There are also documents, letters and papers relating to all other aspects of the collection and the local history of the area.

Subjects

Archives

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC

Saltaire Collection tells the story of Saltaire, principally from its origins in the 1850s to the present. The collection developed in an ad hoc way through the interests of key staff members in Shipley College, some residents, former workers in Salts Mill and local historians/researchers.

Textile production at Salts Mill ceased in 1986 and some archive material was deposited by Mill managers. Much of the effort to organise and conserve the collection from the late 1980s was undertaken by Shipley College Learning Resource Centre staff and volunteers, aided by Saltaire History Club members who researched and deposited much interpretive work on documents, plans, maps and images.

Some residents, ex residents and former textile workers deposited personal memory files and oral histories and as efforts were made by organisations such as the Saltaire Village Society to achieve World Heritage Status, more people came forward with valuable donations.

Researchers, undergraduate, post graduate students and local historians continue to add knowledge and value to the Saltaire Collection.

The collection has recently had large acquisitions from several donor or lenders:

• Nick Salt – Loan – material relating to the Salts from Milner Field.
• Roberts Family -the records of James Roberts who owned the Mill and Village after the Salts sold the business and the Saltaire Estate. This collection was loaned to the Archive for copying, leaving the only publicly available copies (Quasi Originals) with the Archive and a valuable asset to researchers.
• Penny Howden and Barnaby Wilmot -the estate of Mary Isabel Salt now known as the Isabel Salt Collection.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2022

Licence: CC BY-NC

The collection comprises of original and quasi original (see below) documents, images, oral history and objects. It is unique as it relates to a World Heritage Site, interpreting the important heritage of the site. Housed in the Exhibition Building an Historic building that was built in memory of Sir Titus Salt by his son Titus Salt junior. The collection focuses on the founder of Saltaire, the successive owners of the Estate, the Estate and People in the village. The collection includes the wider environs of Shipley putting the village of Saltaire into context. Shipley Urban District Council took over the amenities of Saltaire, such as the schools and hospital, but the Salt family continued to be involved with members of the family sitting on boards. All the family homes were outside the Township of Shipley such as Milner Field which is situated in the township of Bingley and the collection reflects this as these items are still relevant to the Story of Saltaire. The Story of Saltaire is a lens on the Textile Industry in Bradford. As Saltaire Collection currently holds and intends to hold Public Records on behalf of the National Archives it will comply with all Place of Deposit legislation as defined in the Public Records Act 1958 as well as the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The focus on collecting is to become the definitive depository for interpreting, researching and education provision for the Village of Saltaire. We recognise that other collection holds significant items for this story, so where possible we will either hold copies or have information on the item to enable anyone to access those items. Saltaire Collection comprises approximately 6000 individual items which are divided into the following types of material:

Original Documents

Significance: Historically significant This collection contains original material relating to all aspects of the history of Saltaire, from family archive, from individuals of the Salt family to individual residents in the village. The documents include notebooks, pamphlets, newspaper cuttings, letters, financial documents such as receipts and legal documents such as Wills. Highlights of this collection are;

• Health provision in Saltaire including the Bath and Wash House plans
• Education Provision in Saltaire – incorporation document Including Saltaire Schools and Shipley college
• Isabel Salt Archive – recent donation from Penny Howden and Barnaby Wilmot
• Denys Salts Archive – Personal Archive but relates to all his family
• Clara Baraclough – personal memories
• Percy Price – Life in Saltaire a personal memory file
• George Morell – especially his retirement presentation book after 45 years working in Education that started in the Dining Hall School
• Clive Woods collection covering many aspects of life in Saltaire Village

Maps and Plans

Significance: Historically significant This is a comprehensive collection, of maps and plans from before the Saltaire Mill and village were built through its development and includes information on:

• Land Acquisition and use
• Transfer documents
• Changes to ownership and management of the Mill and the Village, 1918- 1986

(10% of enquiries over the last 2 years are about Land Acquisition and use and lan Watson’s work on this is invaluable)

Quasi Original Documents

Significance: Historically significant Quasi original document are documents which are only held in private collections, but an authentic copy has been deposited with the Archive for the public to access. The most significant of these deposits is the Roberts family Archive. It is a Digitised collection of the family records which relates to the Saltaire Estate. The collection is owned by the family and Saltaire Collection has the only copies available to the public. James Roberts purchased Milner Field from Catherine Salt, and he was the sole owner of the Estate (including the Mill) for 20 years and he commissioned the statue of Sir Titus Salt in Roberts Park. Roberts carried on the ethos of the Salts including the philanthropic work and worked to sustain all the charities set up by the Salts.

Born Digital Collection

Significance: Historically significant Born digital are items which have been given to the collection in a digital format and have never been published in hard copies such as books. The most significant items in this collection are the:

• Saltaire Congregational Church Records
• Collin Coate’s Timelines – Social History of Salts Mill, Saltaire public buildings, owners and managers of Salts Mill and the Village.

The aim is to enable digitisation of much more of the collection and Appended at 2 is the forward digitisation policy for the collection.

Books

Significance: Research collection – not unique, but invaluable to researchers Significance: Historic Books – Donations relating to individuals, which is significant as they help tell the story of the individuals such as Titus, Catherine and Isabel Salt.

• This collection includes research books such as the recent donation from the Wellcome Trust “Living with Buildings and walking with Ghosts, on Heath and Architecture, by lan Singlair.
• Original books, on politics or school books that belonged to members of the Salt family including Titus Salt.
• Architectural Studies in Yorkshire by George Bertram Bulmer printed in limited edition for Queen Victoria Jubilee. It was originally owned by Shipley School of Art.

Images

Significance: Historically significant The images are a wide group of material, from family portraits, prints, postcards and photographs of all aspects of life in the village and the Mill. Significant items include:

• Photographs – Berry Family – telling the story of retail in Saltaire
• Photographs of the village, residents and workers
• The Mill – Many originals donated by Albert Bowtell
• Shipley college – has always been housed in the Original School building, the Exhibition building and Victoria Hall. The photographs are from the origin as a Technical College and the Royal Exhibition in 1887.

Object Collection

Significance: Historically significant This collection includes items from Saltaire and the Salt family. Significant items include:

• Salt Family china which marks occasions such as the opening of the Mill and the Royal visits 1882 and 1887.
• Silver Salver – which was given to Mr Wilson as a retirement gift.
• Walking Cane – presented by Mr Joseph Paley, Bandmaster (24th May 1879) to Mr Joseph Scott, military outfitter who made the uniforms for the Saltaire Mill band.
• Dayton Tea pot -links different generations of the Hanson family. William Hanson was Sir Titus Salt’s chief engineer and his great grandson, Donald Hanson, was chair and chief executive of Illingworth, Morris (who owned Salts Mill) in the 1980’s
• Salts Mill Long Service Certificates
• Clive Woods collection of tourism items

The collection currently only includes small items and does not intend to collect large items such as looms.

Costume and Textiles

Significance: Historically significant Textiles are very important to the history of Salts Mill and Saltaire and in fact Bradford as a whole. This part of the collection is very small and currently tells us more about the Salt family than the work of the Mill. The material in this collection includes;

• Isabel Salt – Children’s clothes, once worn by Isabel and her brother Lawrence
• Salt family – towels and textiles

Oral History

Significance: Historically significant This is a unique collection of personal memories of workers in the Mill or Residents of the Village. Appended at 3 is the approved Oral history Policy and Procedure.

Personal Research

Significance: Important for future research, interpretation and education provision of Saltaire. Material Deposited in the Archive written by individual researchers for example:

• land acquisitions, based on material in the West Yorkshire Archive, researched by lan Watson.
• Stone that built Saltaire – Research by Les Brook
• History Club journals, which includes research to various aspects of Saltaire’s History.
• Colin Coates- Time lines, Genealogy

Loans

Significance: Historically significant Although the collection would prefer to not have loans, where the loan is significant to the history of Saltaire and the donor is willing to allow access to the collection as though it was a normal part of the collection, these loans have been accepted. Short term loans have been taken to facilitate digitisation. The most significant collection:

• Nicholas Salt, whose collection includes material from Milner Field and Catherine Salt nee Crossley.
• We will undertake a project of work to digitise this collection to ensure access in the future.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2022

Licence: CC BY-NC

Photographic Collection

There is a significant collection of photographs, both negatives and prints relating to the local area.

Subjects

Photographic equipment

Social History Collection

There is a collection of fire brigade memorabilia.

Subjects

Social History

Archives Collection

The heritage study centre has a large collection of newspapers; periodicals; press-cuttings; local government records; business records; ephemera including pamphlets and advertisements; letters and personal papers; and historical research notes.

Subjects

Archives

Other

Subjects

Agriculture; Archaeology; Biology; Geology; Maritime; Medals; Medicine; Numismatics; Transport; Arms and Armour; Oral History; Science and Industry

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC

Personalia Collection

Collection related to the subject-matter of the Museum.

Subjects

People (literary); Personalia

Fine Art Collection

There are paintings, watercolours, engravings and pastels of Johnson, Garrick, Boswell and other members of Johnson’s circle. There are also topographical pictures of Lichfield and other Johnson buildings and places, especially by John Buckler and Paul Braddon. There are paintings, watercolours, engravings and pastels of Johnson, Garrick, Boswell and other members of Johnson’s circle. There are also topographical pictures of Lichfield and other Johnson buildings and places.

Subjects

Watercolours; Paintings; Fine Art; Prints; Drawings; Western European

Archives Collection

These include autograph letters by Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, Anna Seward, Hester Piozzi; documents relating to the house and Lichfield history; and the papers of Gregory King.

Subjects

Documents (historic); Documents (legal); Archives; Documents (personal)

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC