The Lake District is known for its breath-taking magnificence and wonderful landscapes; fells and lakes that present a unending playground for us to discover. However because the nights attract and the temperatures start to drop, it’s at all times price having a chilly or wet day different up your sleeve. So why not go to one of many area’s many museums, an opportunity to step again in time and delve into the Lake District’s wealthy historical past? And in case you want a little bit inspiration, listed below are ten of our favourites.
Windermere Jetty Museum
Windermere Jetty Museum is situated proper on the shores of Lake Windermere and boasts a shocking assortment of boats and crusing vessels, together with steam launches, record-breaking pace boats and motorboats.
In addition to displaying a historical past of crusing on Windermere reaching as far again on the eighteenth century, additionally, you will have a chance to see ongoing restoration tasks.
Vessels embody Swallow and Amazon, circa 1950, the boat used within the BBC movie adaptation of Arthur Ransome’s well-known e book; Beatrix Potter’s tarn boat, circa 1890; and SL Dolly (circa 1850), the oldest mechanically powered boat on the planet (nonetheless in working order).
Lakeland Motor Museum
Sticking to the transport theme, the Lakeland Motor Museum is dwelling to over 30,000 displays starting from classic fireplace engines to collectible toys. That is an absolute should for any motor fanatic.
The museum is situated in a transformed mill within the village of Backbarrow. Among the many 30,000 or so displays are round 140 basic automobiles and motorbikes, in addition to a number of different ‘automobilia’. Make a journey down reminiscence lane as you wander by way of over 100 years of automotive historical past, in addition to some native historical past, genuine recreations and interval purchasing shows.
Additionally, you will get to see the exhibition devoted to the work of Sir Malcolm Campbell and his son Donald, who between them set twenty-one land a water pace information. The exhibition features a timeline of their achievements, in addition to full dimension replicas of the 1935 Bluebird automobile, the 1939 Bluebird boat and the 1967 jet hydroplane, Bluebird K7.
Barrow Dock Museum
In-built an historic 19th century dock, Barrow Dock Museum is dwelling to an array of objects charting the social and industrial historical past of the Furness space.
Find out about how Barrow started life as a small farming village earlier than remodeling itself right into a bustling industrial centre inside only a few many years.
Since then, this little-explored city has been on the slicing fringe of maritime expertise, the constructing place of submarines, warships and delightful liners.
The Barrow Dock Museum offers you an opportunity to seek out out extra concerning the fascinating heritage of the world, in addition to Barrow’s lengthy historical past constructing vessels.
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Derwent Pencil Museum
Sure, there actually is a museum to have fun the common-or-garden pencil and we will guarantee you {that a} journey to the Derwent Pencil Museum in Keswick is a superb time out for the entire household.
In your go to, which begins by coming into by way of a reproduction graphite mine, you’ll study that Keswick was the house of the primary pencil and that graphite, used to make the well-known Derwent pencils, was first found in Borrowdale the place farmers used it to mark their sheep.
Having left the ‘mine’, you’ll uncover the origins of the Derwent Pencil firm which started life as a small cottage manufacturing, in addition to some wonderful historic information. As an illustration, the key pencils which had been used throughout WW2 that include hidden maps; the Queen’s particular Diamond Jubilee Pencil; and miniature pencil sculptures.
End your journey with an image of your self alongside the museum’s showstopper – a large 8m tall pencil.
Laurel and Hardy Museum
Housed in a 1937 artwork deco cinema in Ulverston, the world-famous Laurel and Hardy Museum is regarded as the biggest assortment of Laurel and Hardy memorabilia. However why Ulverston? As a result of it’s the delivery place of 1 half of the comedy duo – in 1890, Stan Laurel was born only a few streets away in Foundry Cottages, now named Argyll Avenue.
The museum began life as one man’s of pictures which crammed just a few scrapbooks till the gathering crammed one small room. The gathering saved rising and these days contains film-worn costumes, letters and even furnishings, in addition to the prospect to look at a few of their movies.
Dove Cottage and Wordsworth Museum
“I wandered lonely as a cloud, that floats on excessive o’er vales and hills, when all of sudden I noticed a crowd, a number of golden daffodils”.
Arguably essentially the most well-known lyrical phrases penned by William Wordsworth, they had been written in 1804 when the poet was residing at Dove Cottage along with his sister Dorothy.
Located on the sting of the village of Grasmere, Dove Cottage was the house of the well-known Romantic poet William Wordsworth and his spouse Mary and his sister Dorothy.
These days the cottage is run by the Wordsworth Belief and offers you an opportunity to expertise the sights, sounds and smells of Dove Cottage. Hooked up to the cottage is the Wordsworth Museum the place moments taken from his poems and his sister’s Grasmere journal inform the story of their life right here.
Hill Prime, Beatrix Potter’s Home
Let’s transfer on to a different Lake District legend – Beatrix Potter. Beatrix Potter is a part of the panorama of the Lake District. Wherever you go, you might be more likely to come throughout one thing linked to the creator, be it Peter Rabbit merchandise or native kids’s sights.
Hill Prime was Beatrix Potter’s former dwelling, purchased with the proceeds from ‘The Story of Peter Rabbit’. Run by the Nationwide Belief, the home is a time capsule of her life within the Lake District and seems as if she has simply popped out for a stroll.
The environment supplied the inspiration for thus a lot of her books – in reality, ‘The Story of Samuel Whiskers’ was set solely inside the home and most of the e book’s illustrations match objects of furnishings nonetheless current right now.
Take a stroll by way of the gardens and spot the rhubarb patch the place Jemima Puddle-Duck laid her egg, in addition to the backyard the place Tom Kitten and his sisters performed.
Ruskin Museum, Coniston
The Ruskin Museum opened in 1901 as a memorial to author, artist and social reformer, John Ruskin.
Inside you’ll study extra about John Ruskin, about what impressed him and the way his thought and concepts have influenced fashionable society, together with the creation of the Nationwide Belief and fashionable environmentalism.
The museum additionally particulars the efforts of Donald Campbell and his quest to develop into the quickest individual on land and water in addition to creator Arthur Ransome who was so taken with the Lake District and the native panorama that he was impressed to write down ‘Swallows and Amazons’.
Wherever your pursuits lie, from historical past to geology, artwork to engineering, you’ll little question discover one thing of curiosity within the Ruskin Museum.
Kendal Museum
Based in 1796 by William Todhunter, Kendal is among the oldest museums within the UK. And also you’ll be shocked at what you’ll discover, together with the biggest taxidermy assortment in Europe – you’ll even come head to head with an actual dimension polar bear.
In actual fact, Kendal Museum is positively brimming with curios, historic artefacts and informative shows. This smaller scale Pure Historical past Museum has one thing for everybody, together with a number of internationally recognised collections.
It is a customer attraction of distinction – not solely will you be engaged, you’ll be enthralled.
Hawkshead Grammar Faculty Museum
The Hawkshead Grammar Faculty Museum is located within the quaint Lake District village of Hawkshead and offers an perception into what life on the college would have been like for its pupils because it opened in 1585. Amongst these pupils was none apart from William Wordsworth.
Anybody visiting the museum can have entry to the principle classroom, the headmaster’s examine and the upstairs classroom, which is now an exhibition room displaying many desirable objects, books and paperwork referring to the college and the individuals who have been related to it over time.
There are such a lot of fantastic museums within the Lake District and Cumbria, so whittling it down to only ten was a problem. Relaxation assured, wherever you might be within the space, from Whitehaven to Windermere, Carlisle to Keswick, you’ll discover one thing that can pique your curiosity.
Rachael Thomas is Managing Director of Matson Floor Property Firm Restricted, which has a lot of Lake District vacation cottages, together with Birkdale Home. Birkdale Home is a luxurious Victorian residence on the coronary heart of a privately owned property within the English Lake District.
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