Collection: Crawfordjohn Heritage Venture

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  Much of the material that has been collected since the museum opened has come from the area’s hill farms, where sheep husbandry has been the core activity for several centuries. This agricultural material, mostly from the past 150 years, is all provenanced to the collecting area.

  The nature of the area and its traditional economy was until quite recent times such that people had few possessions, with those that they had often being passed between generations. The strongest groups of materials have typically come from farm clearances following death or relocation on retirement, and these typically include personalia and items retained as mementoes that in a museum context often represent interesting and unusual survivals of farm ephemera.

  The museum has always resisted the temptation to acquire large items of farm machinery or domestic furniture due to limited space.

  The museum has from the start systematically collected local photographic images, whether as originals or in copy-negative form where the original is returned to a private owner.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2025

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  In terms of sheep husbandry, the activity generates few objects, but the collections contain examples of almost all items regularly used, including some interesting veterinary material intended for ‘farm’ rather than professional use.

  One group of material relates to shooting – the area has been, and remains much used for field sports – although as a matter of policy the museum does not hold firearms.

  There is a small but significant group of sporting and other trophies, won or presented locally.

  There is a substantial collection of books, preserved as museum objects. These fall into three broad categories:

  • The contents of hill-farm bookshelves – typically agricultural texts, year-books and show catalogues, family bibles and religious texts and cookery books.
  • Original, rare and locally-relevant historical or topographical texts.
  • The remains of Crawfordjohn Subscription Library.

  An important, visually attractive and interesting group of local kirk pewter is held on loan.

  There is a growing body of ephemera relating to community life and social activities, generated for example by the Curling Club, Public Hall, SWRI and the Village School.

  In terms of domestic life, there are particularly strong collections of lighting appliances from the days before electricity, dating back to the 18th century, and of the ephemera of cooking and washing clothes. There is some costume, as is usual typically female and of 19th century origin, but all with the advantage of local provenance.

  There is a large selection of documents of interest to visitors tracing their roots. Among these are indexes to births, marriages and deaths from the Old Parochial Register; census transcriptions and indexes 1841 to 1911; extracts from newspapers and an interesting collection of local photographs and maps. A database entitled “Crawfordjohn People” was gifted by Dr Gael Ferguson of New Zealand – it is a unique resource and provides information from 1650-1851.

  The Collection has steadily grown over the years and now contains 3000 items.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2025

  Licence: CC BY-NC