Post 17Kendal Museum

I woke a few times in the night last night and wondered what was happening outside my window. It sounded like a fan operating. When I opened the curtains in the morning, the river was running at great speed. The noise was the water swooshing under the bridge.

Unfortunately I can't really capture the speed or the sound in a photograph.





As forecast, it was raining. By 10 am the rain had subsided to showers. The sun did not break through, but I was able to don my puffy jacket and venture out to the Museum.


On the way I passed the Castle Dairy, This is a remarkable looking building - the front part dating from the 14th century.

Unfortunately, it is only open to the public from Easter to October.











It has amazing chimneys










and some teeny-tiny windows (notice the one on the right - next to the drain pipe) .














Not far from the Dairy is the Museum

There are three parts to the Museum. The main ground floor houses the Lakeland and Westmoreland History collection - a kind of very large cabinet of curiosities. Down a corridor is a large room housing the World Wildlife Collection, and upstairs is the Lake District Natural History Collection.

fan with lace inset

chatelain

I began on the ground floor - homing in on a glass case of textile bits. There are lace gloves, fans, doilies,
 a chatelaine and some Victorian embroidered bags.

Most things with a provenance were either Victorian or Edwardian.



I quickly realised that this was a museum to which local people had donated a lot over many years.


There was a cabinet displaying memorabilia from the Quaker School, which closed in 1932,  Let no child complain about their current school uniform!


Taxidermists have been busy in Kendal over the years. There were more than a few stuffed animals -

of all sizes and origins.

I could find no label for the bear, but as a descendant of

Bearcrafts - the keepers of the bears in the forests of Lancashire, I wondered if it were from there.






Humans did not escape. There is a mummified hand - most notable, I thought, for the information provided - which is about the linen used to shroud it!
I am attempting to cluster these in some logical grouping that was not always evident. This bison head, for example, is set over a 19th Century iron cell door from Kendal Gaol.


A bust of

Abraham Lincoln, made from pulped bank notes, sits in front of a local primer and beside some porcelain cups.











A wooden  box holds the minutes of the Fastossity Society. I have been unable to find any information about the Society and am left wondering if it had anything to do with the little teaset that sits on top of it in the display. Since it met at the Football Inn, an association seems unlikely.







There is an extraordinary collection of bronze age implements















and a huge "brain coral"


along with the drums and drumsticks of the Westmoreland and Cumberland Yeomanry.





Tucked away, under a cabinet is a "travelling/
portable harmonium.











I rather liked the collection of truncheons.
After I had worked my way around these, and many more, items of local interest, it was with some curiosity I moved into the World Wildlife room.

I was not prepared for the scale of what I saw as I stepped into the room -





and the room has considerable depth.







The collection of animals and birds covers all continents.





Africa is, I think, 

best represented in terms of numbers.

















but the collection is huge and broadly representative.





The Australian animals include a wallaby, possum and platypus. The Australian birds are all from NSW.

The collection of birds eggs is artistically arranged.



The museum appears to be well used by local schools. I did not go upstairs ( the stairs being rather steep and my brain being saturated) but there were groups of students coming and going and sounds of music drifting down. There are so many stories here - of a community interested in science, the world beyond its own boundaries. I'd like more of that narrative. Hopefully the students visiting and studying the history of their communities will construct it.

After a brief visit back to my hotel, I ventured out again to pay another short visit to the Quaker Museum and have lunch in their cafe. As I was eating my tomato and lentil soup I watched two women talking while one of them stitched. As I left I stopped to ask about her embroidery. It was a kit she had bought in the 1970s. Both women were members of a Quaker stitching group that had met this morning and were staying on for a 'Sit and Stitch' group that afternoon. She explained that the kit was her PHD (Project Half Done) and she was making good progress. We talked for quite a while about embroidery. They knew Liz. The stitcher  had also lived in New Zealand for a year and briefly visited Australia.

If I had had my stitching with me I'd have joined them! It was a counter-balance to the museum.



Back at the hotel I took advantage of a few rays of sunshine to do a bit more on my Hill Top project.

This is a better photo of the lavender and rhubarb, taken in the sunlight.














I worked on the geraniums and then gave myself the fun of needle felting the bushes on each side of the house.

My eyes gave out but since dinner I have added some French knots and detached chain. I decided my needle felted items are bushes and small trees. I don't think I want to add sequins at this stage - maybe not at all. I'll wait and see once I've added
the delphinium and primula leaves.


Tomorrow I am meeting a couple I met in Adelaide last year - cousins of my friend Pat Manser. Weather still cold and wet - another adventure!