Bagshaw Museum facts for kids
Exterior of the museum
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| Former name | Wilton Park Museum |
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| Established | 1911 |
| Location | Batley, West Yorkshire |
| Type | Local museum |
| Key holdings |
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| Founder | Walter Bagshaw |
| Owner | Kirklees Council |
| Nearest parking | On site (no charge) |
The Bagshaw Museum is a fun and interesting local museum located in Batley, a town in West Yorkshire, England. It's found inside Wilton Park. The museum building itself is a grand old mansion built in a style called Gothic Revival. It was turned into a museum in 1911 by Walter Bagshaw.
The museum was first called the Wilton Park Museum. After Walter Bagshaw passed away in 1927, it was renamed in his honor. The museum has a really cool and varied collection of old items and objects from different cultures. It even has a special Egyptology gallery, which is unusual for a local museum. Here you can see a replica mummy! The museum also has many Asian textiles, showing Batley's connection to the textile industry.
Today, Kirklees Council owns and runs the museum. The museum's future has been uncertain in recent years, but it remains open for visitors to explore.
Contents
Discovering the Museum's Past
How the Building Became a Museum
The museum building was originally a large house called 'The Woodlands'. A mill owner named George Sheard built it in 1875. It was a very fancy house. When Mr. Sheard died in 1902, no one wanted to buy the big house. So, the local government bought it for a very small price.
Walter Bagshaw then turned this mansion into a museum in 1911. It was first known as the Wilton Park Museum. After Walter Bagshaw died in 1927, the museum was renamed Bagshaw Museum. This was done to honor him as its first curator.
Growing the Collections
The museum started with Walter Bagshaw's own private collection of items. After he passed away, his daughter, Violet Bagshaw, continued to travel. She bought many more objects to donate to the museum.
In 1929, the museum's collections grew a lot. It received 170 pieces from the collection of John Hilditch. He was a famous expert on items from Eastern cultures. Mr. Hilditch had shown many of his items in a travelling exhibition. His will said that his collection should go to wherever the exhibition was when he died. It happened to be at the Bagshaw Museum at that time.
Sadly, some items from the museum's collection were stolen in 1997.
The Museum's Future
In early 2016, there were talks about closing the museum. This was due to money cuts for the local council. However, the Bagshaw Museum stayed open. Other nearby museums, like Dewsbury Museum and Red House Museum, closed instead. Even though it's still open, the museum's future has been described as "uncertain" by the Museums Association.
Exploring the Museum's Collections
What You Can See Inside
The Bagshaw Museum has several different galleries to explore. There are two galleries that show local history from the Batley area. There is also a gallery focused on South Asia. The museum also has a space for temporary exhibitions.
One of the most exciting parts is the Egyptological gallery. This is quite special for a local museum.
The Egyptian Mummy and More
The main attraction in the Egyptology display is a full-size replica mummy. A curator named John Lidster created it in 1969. He used a real historic death mask, bandages, and even ground coffee to make it look authentic.
The museum also has many real ancient and cultural objects. These include:
- An Egyptian coffin from the 7th century BCE. It has hieroglyphs, which are ancient Egyptian writings.
- A carving of Sekhmet, an ancient Egyptian goddess.
- A wooden statue of Han dynasty general Guan Yu from China.
- A carved coconut head from the South Pacific islands.
- A carving of the Hindu deity Garuda.
- A decorated box from British India.
- An Aboriginal Australian spear thrower.
- A 19th-century sword from Sudan.
Asian Textiles
The museum also has a large collection of Asian textiles. These include beautiful pieces from Japan and China. Many of these came from the Hilditch collection. Other textiles were donated by people, or came from the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Imperial Institute. The museum has also recently added textiles from South Asia.
The Famous Painting
In the 1950s, a group called the Contemporary Art Society gave a painting by Francis Bacon to the Bagshaw Museum. The painting is called Figure Study II. This painting is now worth a lot of money.
In 1974, the ownership of the museum changed. The painting was then moved to Huddersfield Art Gallery. It is usually on display there. Sometimes, it is loaned to other museums for special exhibitions. In 2016, there was talk about selling the painting. However, it was later found that the rules of the donation meant it could not be sold.
See also
- Listed buildings in Batley
