Bracken Hall Countryside Centre and Museum facts for kids
Bracken Hall Museum
|
|
| Established | Early 1980s; 1989 at Bracken Hall. |
|---|---|
| Location | Glen Road, Baildon, Shipley, West Yorkshire, England BD17 5EA |
| Type | Children's museum, Natural history museum, Local archaeology museum, Interpretation centre |
| Public transit access | Shipley Glen Tramway or bus from Bradford Interchange |
Bracken Hall Countryside Centre and Museum is a fun place for kids! It's a children's museum and a nature centre that teaches about natural history. It opened in 1989 at Bracken Hall. You can find it near Baildon Moor and Shipley Glen in West Yorkshire, England.
In 2013, the local council stopped funding the museum. But the Friends of Bracken Hall group worked hard to save it. They gathered lots of support. The museum finally reopened to the public in April 2016. This happened with help from the Baildon Town Council.
Contents
Exploring the Museum
The Main Building and Front Garden
Inside the Building
This old building was built around 1890. It's made of strong Yorkshire gritstone. It used to be a bailiff's house, then a farmhouse. It still has its big, old front door. The house has a classic design with two rooms on each side of the front door. Stairs lead up to two bedrooms on each side upstairs.
The Bradford City Council added a new room downstairs. This is where the museum entrance and reception desk are now. The two original front rooms downstairs are now the Archaeology room and the Exhibition room. Visitors can explore these areas.
How the Museum Works
This museum is great for all ages. It has many hands-on displays, both inside and outside. When the museum is open, you can walk through the ground floor rooms. You can also explore the front and back gardens. These gardens are designed for discovering wildlife. The museum also hosts special groups. These include "Wild Wednesdays" and guided walks. School groups can visit by appointment.
The Front Garden
The front garden changes with the seasons. In May and June, you can see many wild flowers. These include green alkanet, herb Robert, and creeping buttercup. There are bird feeders too. They attract different kinds of finches and tits. You might also see a rabbit or guinea pig in their hutch. Sometimes, the animal can safely graze in the garden.
-
The front garden with Shipley in the distance.
-
Bird feeders attracting different birds.
-
Wildflowers like green alkanet, herb Robert, and creeping buttercup.
The Entrance Room
-
A wormery where you can see worms at work.
-
Honeycomb from a beehive, safe for children to touch.
-
The remains of a wasp nest, also safe to handle.
-
Put your hands in holes to guess natural objects by touch.
-
An interactive wildlife pop-up board for younger kids.
-
An interactive display to help children identify wildlife.
-
Garden birds displayed in safety glass, low for children to see.
The museum often changes its displays. This is because kids are very hands-on. Also, wildlife changes with the seasons.
Video Microscope Fun
Near the reception desk is a tall, interactive video microscope. You can place a dish of natural objects on the lighted tray. For example, you might look at houseflies. The screen at the top shows them much bigger than your hand. This lets you see all their tiny details easily. The tray is low enough for kids to use.
Fishtanks and Worms
Along the back wall, you'll find several fishtanks. They might have tadpoles, bullheads, goldfish, or tiny water fleas. In the far corner, there's a wormery. Here, you can watch worms moving through the soil.
Honeycomb and Wasp Nests
There used to be an indoor beehive with a window. Now, there's an information board about bees. You can also touch a real honeycomb. The display explains how bees live and build their hives. There's also a board about wasps. It talks about their behavior and nest structure. You can even compare a papery wasp nest with the waxy honeycomb.
Computer Nature Guide
This computer has a fun Dangerous Creatures game. It helps you learn about wildlife from other countries. It's located on the wall opposite the reception. Nearby, there's a box where you can identify natural objects just by touching them.
Interactive Animal Displays
On the same wall, there are two interactive boards. One is for younger children. It has big wooden handles. When you pull them, rabbits and birds pop out! The other board is for older kids. It has glass panels with pictures or mounted animals. You lift wooden flaps to see the animal's name.
Mounted Birds Display
Behind the entrance door, there's a glass case with mounted birds. It's low enough for young children to see them up close. You'll find garden birds, a wren's nest, and a tawny owl. This display also plays birdsong recordings. You can learn to recognize different bird calls quickly.
Local History and Archaeology Room
This room shows off old items from archaeology, geology, and local history. It's interesting for both kids and adults. The most important item is the Heygate stone. Information boards and other exhibits fill the walls.
The Heygate Stone
This stone is very special. It has ancient cup and ring designs carved into it. These were made during the neolithic era, about 5,000 years ago. Larger stones with these marks are still on the moor. This smaller stone is kept safe in the museum. It was found in 2001 near Baildon. It's a clear example of these ancient carvings.
Local Finds
A glass case holds items found on Baildon Moor. These include neolithic and medieval objects. You can see an iron sickle and a burial urn from 1904. There's also a medieval jug and a lead spindle whorl. Some neolithic arrowheads made of flint are here too. You can even see Roman coins, one found in Shipley Glen.
The Quern-stone
There's an Iron Age beehive quern-stone that kids can use. It has a wooden handle and grain to grind. You can try to figure out how to grind the corn. When you turn the stone, the grain helps it move easily. But the stone is still rough enough to grind the corn. Remember to be careful with your fingers!
Local Fossils
You'll see a display of fossils found nearby. These include the big Calamites, which was like a giant horsetail. There's also the small Gastrioceras, a type of ammonite. Other fossils like Lepidodendron and Stigmaria are also on display. All these were found around Baildon Moor.
Local Geology
An information board explains the local rocks. You can touch small, loose stones like ironstone, gritstone, and coal. The board also shows a picture of Baildon Moor. It shows the different layers of rock underground. If you walk on the moor, you might see these layers in the big rocks.
Local Stories
You can listen to local stories through headphones. These "oral histories" help keep the community's past alive. They share memories and traditions from the area.
-
Displays about archaeology and local history.
-
More archaeology and local history displays.
-
A copy of the Heygate stone, showing how the cup and ring marks overlap.
-
An interactive quern-stone display.
-
Kids can try grinding grain with the quern-stone.
-
Quern-stones at Cliffe Castle Museum, showing the central wooden spindle.
-
A Gastrioceras fossil, an ancient swimming animal with a coiled shell.
-
Geological samples that visitors can touch and feel.
-
Headphones with recordings of local history stories from Shipley Glen and Baildon Moor.
Front Door Lobby
In the lobby, you can see the inside of the original front door. There are quiz sheets to help you identify wildlife. A board has numbered pictures to guess. The quiz has some unusual animals, so it's fun for everyone. Other wildlife pictures and displays are often changed here.
Exhibition and Activity Room
This room used to be a reception room in the old farmhouse. Now, it's a gallery. You'll find reference books on a table. These can help you with the wildlife quiz. This room is also used for school and group visits.
Nature Study Through Time
This display shows how people used to study nature. You can compare old methods with new ones. See old books and a brass optical microscope. Compare "botanizing" (old-style plant study) with modern "fieldwork." Today, people use cameras and field guides.
Autumn Nature Scene
Here, you can see a beautiful autumn scene. It includes mounted animals like a weasel, shrew, and jay. These are shy animals you might not see often in the wild. You can also identify different autumn seeds in this display.
-
The exhibition and activity room.
-
A display showing how botany (plant study) has changed over time.
-
A 19th-century brass optical microscope.
-
Quiz forms available in the lobby.
The Back Garden
Back Yard Area
You can get to the back yard from the Entrance room. It has the toilets and another animal hutch.
Side Garden Discoveries
The side garden has a raised lawn. Here, you'll find a "minibeast trapdoor." It's a light cover that small creatures hide under. Kids can lift it to find slugs, snails, earthworms, woodlice, and millipedes. There's also another animal hutch and a shed with batboxes. You can see two old apple trees and a copy of a cup and ring stone to touch.
Side Path Wonders
Along the side path, an old bathtub is filled with wild flowers. There's also a safety cage where the indoor beehive used to be. Bumble bees still try to use the entrance in early summer. You might see Wellington boots drying on a bench. It can get muddy here!
-
An animal hutch in the back yard.
-
The minibeast trapdoor, where children can observe small creatures.
-
A slug found under the minibeast trapdoor.
-
A view of the hutch and shed with bat-boxes in the backyard.
-
A copy of cup and ring marks, made by archaeologists.
-
Wellington boots drying on a bench, ready for muddy adventures.
-
The safety cage around the entrance to the old indoor beehive.
-
Disused beehives in the garden.
The Pond Area
The children's dipping pond is a great place to explore. You can find yellow flags, tadpoles, frogs, newts, and other pond life. It's a perfect spot for learning about water creatures.
-
The wildlife pond for children, with flag leaves.
-
Green alkanet (pentaglottis sempervirens), a common wildflower.
-
Yellow flag flowers growing in the pond.
-
A close-up of the green alkanet flower.
Baildon Moor and Shipley Glen
Right across the road from the museum is Baildon Moor. People have used this moor for fun for a long time. There used to be a Victorian funfair here! You can read its story in the Archaeology room. On the moor, you can also find an ancient neolithic stone circle.
Just a five-minute walk away is Shipley Glen. Some of the museum's nature walks happen here. A Roman coin found in Shipley Glen is now in the Archaeology room. There's some parking near the moor for museum visitors. It can be muddy after rain, so boots are a good idea!
