Letchworth Museum & Art Gallery facts for kids

The Letchworth Museum and Art Gallery, which opened in 1914.

The Letchworth Museum and Art Gallery was a special place in Letchworth, Hertfordshire, England. It showed off amazing collections about the natural world and history of North Hertfordshire. You could see exhibits about local animals, like the famous black squirrel. It also had displays on archaeology, which is the study of old human history, from ancient times up to the early 1900s.

Museum History

The Letchworth Museum and Art Gallery first opened its doors in 1914. It was created to hold all the interesting items collected by the Letchworth and District Naturalists’ Society. This group loved studying nature and history.

Building Design and Growth

The museum building was first designed as a single-story structure. It was created by Richard Barry Parker, a key architect of the early Garden City movement. This movement aimed to build new towns with lots of green spaces.

The museum building grew bigger over time. In the 1920s, it was made larger. Then, between 1960 and 1963, more parts were added to the back. These later additions were designed by Courtenay Melville Crickmer. He also designed the Letchworth Library, which was right next door.

Early Curators

The museum's first curator was W Percival Westell (1874–1943). A curator is like a manager who looks after the museum's collections. Westell was a famous writer about nature and archaeology.

He started as an unpaid curator in 1914. By 1928, his job became paid, and he stayed until he passed away. During his time at the museum, he wrote 84 books. He also gave 145 radio talks for the BBC, mostly about nature.

After Westell, Albert T Clarke became the curator. He held the position from 1944 to 1968.

How the Museum Was Run

At first, the Letchworth and District Naturalists’ Society ran the museum. But in 1939, the Letchworth Urban District Council took over. This was a local government group.

When the Urban District Council ended in 1974, the museum's management changed again. From then on, the North Hertfordshire District Council was in charge.

Museum Closure

Around 2004 and 2005, the North Hertfordshire District Council looked closely at its museum services. This was to see how well they were doing. They found that people really liked the museums and their services. This included the Letchworth Museum and Art Gallery and the Hitchin Museum and Art Gallery.

However, both museum buildings were described as "unfit for purpose." This meant they were not suitable for what a modern museum needed. Also, the place where they stored museum items was old and not efficient.

A New Museum

Because of these issues, the council made a plan. One main idea was to close the two old museums in Letchworth and Hitchin. Instead, they decided to open one new museum and art gallery in a central town location.

They studied if Hitchin Town Hall could be changed into a museum. The new museum, called the North Hertfordshire Museum, opened in July 2019. It was designed by Buttress, with the museum layout by Mather & Co.