Stockwood Discovery Centre facts for kids
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| Established | 1954 |
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| Location | Stockwood Park, Luton, England |
The Stockwood Discovery Centre is a fun and free museum located in Luton, England. It used to be called Stockwood Craft Museum. This museum, along with the Wardown Park Museum, is managed by a group called Luton Culture.
At the Discovery Centre, you can explore many interesting collections. These include items about local history, old archaeological finds, and information about rocks and the Earth (geology). You can also see displays about traditional country crafts. One of the most exciting parts is the Mossman Collection, which is the largest collection of horse-drawn carriages in all of Europe!
Outside the museum, there are beautiful gardens to explore. The Period Gardens show how gardens looked in different times, from the fancy Elizabethan Knot Garden to the "Dig for Victory" gardens from World War II. In 2007, new gardens were added, like the Sensory Garden (designed for all your senses), the World Garden, and the Medicinal Garden. You can also see amazing sculptures by a famous artist named Ian Hamilton Finlay in the Improvement Garden.
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What is the History of Stockwood Discovery Centre?
The museum first opened its doors in 1986 as Stockwood Park Museum. It then had a big makeover and reopened in 2008 as the Stockwood Discovery Centre. This big project cost about £6 million!
What is the Mossman Carriage Collection?
The Mossman Carriage Collection is a special part of the Stockwood Discovery Centre. It's a museum all about horse-drawn vehicles, like old carriages and carts. This collection is the biggest of its kind in the United Kingdom! You can see original vehicles from the 1700s, 1800s, and 1900s. It's like stepping back in time to see how people used to travel before cars were invented.
What Can You See in the Bagshawe Gallery?
The Bagshawe Gallery at Stockwood Discovery Centre shows off a collection of rural crafts and tools. These items were collected by a man named Thomas Wyatt Bagshawe. He was a well-known local historian and an expert on old country ways of life.
Thomas Bagshawe started his own small museum in 1927. He later became the director of the Luton Museum. He was very interested in preserving the history of country life and crafts, especially as many of these skills were starting to disappear.
During the 1930s and after World War II, Bagshawe traveled around villages in Bedfordshire. He looked for people who still practiced old crafts, interviewed them, and collected their tools and creations. He also took many notes and photos.
In 1954, Thomas Bagshawe gave his entire collection to the Luton Museum. He wanted to make sure these important pieces of history were saved and displayed for everyone to see. Today, this amazing collection is housed at the Stockwood Discovery Centre. It helps us understand what life was like for people in the past and the skills they used every day.
