Our small town museum is housed in a 17th century Grade 11 listed Cotswold stone mansion house once the home of a local wealthy wool merchant. The museum houses a great variety of interesting artifacts. They reveal a rich, and diverse history about the people who have lived and worked in the surrounding valleys from the earliest settlers through to the present day. With over 4,000 objects on display there is something of interest for every age. There are locally found dinosaur and mamoth bones, Roman remains, the world's first lawnmower, invented locally, historical paintings and importantly the story of wool that brought great wealth to the area courtesy the backs of the "lion" Cotswold sheep. According to a 12th Century saying, "in Europe the best wool is English and in England the best wool is Cotswold". The Golden Fleece' obtained from the long-haired Cotswold Lion breed, thought to have be introduced by the Romans during their invasion, was widely renowned for its heavy wool clip.
The market towns in the Cotswolds would have been bustling with wealthy wool-merchants from rich cloth-making towns abroad who flocked to these hills to buy the wool. The enormous wealth engendered courtesy wool was responsible for the large number of fine "wool" churches, grand mansions, and civic buildings.
The museum is set in a charming wooded parkland filled with a huge variety of specimen trees. However, hidden away behind the mansion is a delightful walled garden which is free for all, as is the museum.
Imagine the excitement in small market towns when wealthy traders and wool-merchants lobbed in. Every soul in town would be talking about these outsiders; the pubs would have been full! I'd love to see the story of wool in the Museum, including some of the finished woollen textiles.
ReplyDeleteThe scarlet wool fabric used for military uniforms comes from here, as does the bright green wool fabric for snooker tables, along with the bright yellow wood used on tennis balls.
DeleteNow I am curious! Did you intend to use the term “historial ” or did a misbehaving finger decline to type the “c” to convert the word to “historical”? If I am not mistaken, the two words mean the same thing, with “historial” rooted in antiquity, and given the topic of your post it occurs to me that you may have deliberately chosen “historial.” The museum seems a lovely place to visit and I hope that the local citizenry takes full advantage of the opportunity.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct David the two words mean the same. However, my particular spelling was a human error which I have now corrected.
DeleteSounds like a perfect way to spend an afternoon!
ReplyDeleteAround the world so many of us are really fortunate to have places in which we can wander freely and enjoy - museums, art galleries, parks, gardens, and of course the countryside.
DeleteThat sounds an excellent local museum. I've spent many a happy wet afternoon in little museums like that. There are always wacky items in them somewhere - a local giant's boots and top hat (Cambridge), William Wordsworth's old gardening gloves (Keswick) and Napoleon's breakfast crockery set, captured in battle, at Wisbech.
ReplyDeleteYou are right John we are all very fortunate to have so many of these quaint museums on our doorsteps.
DeleteWhen I visited Delphi museum in Greece I will never forget my surprise at seeing an ancient Greek safety pin which was just like those we use today, or seeing the preserved corpse of 19th century philosopher Jeremy Bentham, dressed up in his original hat and gloves and holding his favourite walking stick in a glass cage in London University College museum.
Hello Rosemary, Only four thousand objects in the museum? Amateurs!
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I once read Daniel Defoe's Tour of England and Wales, and it turned out to be more-or-less an almanac in prose form. He visited every town, then told us how many bales of wool it produced. The more interesting aspects of the countryside he oddly left out. For example, Defoe would have said that the Cotswold Museum garden is so famous that it needs no further description, while you lavish us with these delightful photos, treating us to a vicarious visit.
--Jim
Hello Jim - I am convinced that you for one would love our little Museum with its quirky objects and interactive displays. They also have a gallery that is used to showcase local artists, writers, poets, painters, printers, pottery, fabric designers etc which is a great showcase for their work.
DeleteLovely display of autumnal colours.
ReplyDeleteIt is really interesting the way garden colours change seemingly imperceptively over the months.
DeleteA lot of interesting grasses there Rosemary.
ReplyDeleteThe use of grasses amongst flowers makes for a happy marriage.
DeleteThe world's first lawnmower? Now I am curious - and I'm guessing you weren't having a little joke, dear Rosemary, that it was a Sheep. As a kid I remember having a sheep in our backyard for a bit, minding it for a neighbour for some reason, I guess, which paid close attention to the lawn. Not a common sight when you live in a city, but hey, the 70s was a time all of its own :)
ReplyDeleteHa ha dear Pip - no really and truly it was a human engineered lawn mower. In 1830 a local engineer, Edwin Beard, obtained the idea after seeing a machine in the local cloth mill which used a cutting cylinder (or bladed reel) mounted on a bench to trim cloth to make a smooth finish after weaving. Beard realised that a similar concept would enable the cutting of grass if the mechanism could be mounted in a wheeled frame to make the blades rotate close to the surface of a lawn.
DeleteThe Cotswolds certainly have a wonderful heritage, and it sounds like an excellent local museum. The walled garden is very pretty, and I really like the yellow and red fruits (?) - I can't tell what they are! The purple daisies are absolutely stunning - rich in Autumn tones.
ReplyDeleteThe tiny yellow fruits are crab apples, and the red ones are some particularly large rose hips.
DeleteA museum and a beautiful garden together. You certainly live in a perfect place. B x
ReplyDeleteBoth the museum and the garden are surrounded by an attractive park with wooded pathways and a lake.
Delete... and I certainly enjoyed my wander through the garden, your photographs are lovely.
ReplyDeleteAll the best Jan
We think that it is a lovely garden especially considering that this is a small market town museum.
DeleteBeautiful shots.
ReplyDeletePleased you enjoyed William.
DeleteDear Rosemary, so beautiful - thank you! When I see the photo of the sheep I regret that my best friend Anne cannot enjoy it anymore - her husband is caring for her, and her own four sheep are still on their own ground. Alzheimer came utterly unexpected.
ReplyDeleteBut back to the beautiful garden: I love the white Japan anemone "Honorine Jobert" which you photographed the best, though 'Septembercharme" is more easily to raise.
And the museum must be a real treat!
Dear Britta - Alzheimers is a 21st C problem with so many of us having a far long life span, but I imagine the your best friend Anne was not really old.
DeleteHow right you are regarding the white Japan anemone, I have Septembercharme but so wish that I had planted Honorine Jobert.
Hello, Rosemary. I like a small local museum that displays historical quaint things. I especially like it when the museum stands in the park with such a beautiful garden. It's interesting to know that Cotswold Lion is a breed of sheep. My eyes were glued to “balmy September”, which I have been impatiently longed for. Happy for you that you had such a wonderful day.
ReplyDeleteYoko
Hello Yoko - I do hope that a balmy September does come your way, but already October is standing on the doorstep and Autumn is knocking on our doors.
DeleteI like small local museums...always interesting! LOVELY pictures as always...
ReplyDeleteTitti
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