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Letchworth Museum & Art Gallery facts for kids
Letchworth Museum and Art Gallery was a cool place in Letchworth, England. It used to show off amazing things about the local area. You could see displays about the animals and plants of North Hertfordshire, like the famous black squirrel. It also had old artifacts from way back in time, showing how people lived before the 1900s.
The Museum's Story
The Letchworth Museum and Art Gallery first opened its doors in 1914. It was created to hold all the interesting collections gathered by the Letchworth and District Naturalists’ Society. Imagine a group of people who loved nature and history so much they started their own museum!
The building itself was designed by Richard Barry Parker. He was a key architect in the early Garden City movement, which aimed to create towns with lots of green spaces. The museum started as a single-story building. Later, it was made bigger in the 1920s. More additions were made to the back of the building between 1960 and 1963. These newer parts were designed by Courtenay Melville Crickmer. He also designed the Letchworth Library next door in 1938.
Who Ran the Museum?
The first person in charge of the museum was W Percival Westell (1874–1943). He was a well-known writer about nature and old discoveries. He started as an unpaid curator in 1914. By 1928, he was paid for his work and stayed as curator 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 took over as curator. He worked there from 1944 to 1968.
Even though the Naturalists’ Society started the museum, it was taken over by the Letchworth Urban District Council in 1939. Later, in 1974, the Urban District Council was dissolved. Since then, the North Hertfordshire District Council has been in charge of the museum.
Why the Museum Closed
Between 2004 and 2005, the North Hertfordshire District Council looked closely at its museum services. They found that visitors really liked the museums, including Letchworth Museum and Art Gallery. People also enjoyed the education programs and the archaeology and natural history services.
However, the council decided that both the Letchworth museum and the Hitchin Museum and Art Gallery were not suitable anymore. They were too old and inefficient for modern museum needs.
So, the council made a big decision. They recommended closing both existing museums. Instead, they planned to open one new, bigger museum and art gallery in a single town-centre location. They studied the idea of turning Hitchin Town Hall into this new museum.
The new museum, called the North Hertfordshire Museum, opened its doors in July 2019. It was designed by Buttress, with the museum layout created by Mather & Co.