Craven Museum & Gallery facts for kids

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Craven Museum & Gallery

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Established	1928
Location	Skipton, Town Hall, High Street, North Yorkshire, BD23 1AH, England
Type	Local museum
Nearest parking	Behind Town Hall (pay)

The Craven Museum & Gallery is a cool museum in Skipton, North Yorkshire, England. You can find it inside Skipton Town Hall. This museum has lots of old items, called artefacts. These items show what life was like in the Craven area. They cover a huge time, from prehistoric times right up to today. The museum had a big makeover thanks to the National Lottery Heritage Fund. It reopened its doors on June 21, 2021.

History of the Museum

How the Museum Started

The Craven Museum opened on October 6, 1928. It was started by local groups like the Craven Naturalists and Scientific Association. They wanted a place to keep their collections safe. These collections included amazing finds from Elbolton Cave. They also had a collection of plants called a Herbarium. Sir Henry Alexander Miers, who was a big name in museums, officially opened it. The museum first started in a room at Skipton library.

Growing Bigger and Moving

In 1934, the Skipton Urban District Council took over the museum. This helped it to grow and collect even more items. For over 30 years, the museum kept getting bigger.

In 1969, a group called the Friends of the Craven Museum was created. Arthur Raistrick was their leader. Hundreds of people quickly joined this group. The Friends were always looking for new things to add to the museum.

Volunteers and New Finds

Volunteers were super important to the museum. They helped move heavy objects, like a big ore crusher from Derbyshire. This crusher was fixed up and shown to the public in 1970. Volunteers also helped label exhibits and do research. The Friends group even paid for special digs. One famous dig found a tile-making kiln in nearby Rylstone.

On December 11, 1973, the museum moved. It went across the road to its current home in Skipton Town Hall.

Modern Updates

In 2005, a new gallery for special exhibitions opened. This gallery now hosts different shows every year. In 2015, the museum got help for a big £2.1 million project. This project, called "Stories and Treasures of street and dale," aimed to make the museum even better.

The museum closed in September 2018 for these updates. It reopened in June 2021, looking brand new!

What You Can See: Collections

The museum has a huge range of objects. They come from prehistoric Craven to modern times. Some items are even from far-off places like Italy and Egypt. You can see old clothes, photos, farm tools, and even listen to oral history recordings.

Biology Collection

This part of the museum is all about nature. It has collections from people who loved studying plants and animals. You can see a 19th-century bird egg collection. There are also collections of entomology (insects), botany (plants), and zoology (animals).

Geology Collection

The geology collection is full of rocks, minerals, and fossils. Many of these were found by local collectors. Lots of the rocks and minerals are from the Craven area, like limestone. You can see fossils of ammonites, coral, and even parts of an Ichthyosaurus.

Archaeology Collection

This collection covers a long time, from the Stone Age to after the Middle Ages. Many items were found during local digs. You can see things from nearby caves like Elbolton and Victoria. There are also Roman finds and an old coin collection from the time of Queen Elizabeth I.

Social History Collection

This section shows what daily life was like in Craven. You can see old home appliances and a collection of toys. There are exhibits about farming and lead mining. You can also learn about famous local people. These include the Calendar Girls and Thomas Spencer, who helped start Marks and Spencer.

Oral History Collection

For the last 40 years, the museum has recorded local people's stories. They have about 70 tapes. These tapes tell about life during the World Wars. They also share stories about working on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and farming.

Art Collection

The museum has many different types of art. There are oil paintings, watercolours, prints, and sculptures. Many pieces are by local artists. Most of the paintings show local scenes or people, like Lady Anne Clifford from Skipton Castle. A big part of the art collection is from Clement Roebuck, a famous art collector.

Costumes Collection

You can see a collection of old clothes and accessories. Many are always on display. There are dresses from the 1700s to modern pieces from the 1940s. You can also see uniforms from the Skipton Brass Band and the Home Guard. Accessories include old glasses and handbags.

Special Things to See

Shakespeare's First Folio

The museum has a very rare copy of Shakespeare's First Folio. This book contains 36 of Shakespeare's plays. It was given to the museum in the 1930s. For a long time, people thought it was a different edition. But recently, an expert found out it was a First Folio! It's one of only four on display in the whole world.

The Flasby Sword

This Iron Age Celtic sword was found on Flasby moor nearby. It's made of iron with a copper scabbard (sheath). The scabbard has cool Celtic decorations. It's so well-preserved that experts think it was put into a pit as a special offering.

Frankish Gold Coin

The museum has a small gold coin from the Frankish people. It's called a tremissis and is from around 580 to 630 AD. It was found in the 1970s when Holy Trinity Church was being built. There's a tiny hole in it, so it might have been worn as a pendant (a necklace charm).

Mouseman Collection

You can see 17 items made by a famous carver named Robert Thompson. He was known as 'Mouseman' because he always carved a tiny mouse into his furniture. The museum got these pieces from the son of a big 'Mouseman' collector.

Roebuck Collection

This is a collection of 145 pieces of art. They were given to the museum in 1988 by a rich art collector named Clement Roebuck. He loved collecting art and often bought pieces that other galleries didn't want.

Amethyst Intaglio

This is a Roman engraved gem made from amethyst. It was found in nearby Hellifield and given to the museum in 1934. The carving shows a man, maybe Odysseus, giving wine to the cyclops Polyphemus before he blinds him.

Exhibitions

The museum's gallery is next to the Skipton Tourist Information Centre. It hosts many different shows. Past exhibitions have included one about the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta. There was also a show about the Tour de France when it came to Yorkshire.

The gallery also has regular exhibitions. One is called Craven Open, which shows art by local artists. Another is Yarndale, a yearly festival in Skipton all about yarn.

In 2014, the museum let the Yorkshire Museum borrow its Shakespeare First Folio. In return, they got to display two amazing Iron Age gold bracelets. These bracelets are the oldest gold items ever found in Yorkshire!

Visitor Information

The Craven Museum & Gallery is inside Skipton Town Hall. You can find it on Skipton High Street. It's about a five-minute walk from the Skipton bus station. It's also about a twenty-minute walk from the Skipton railway station.