The Museum of Lancashire is housed in a grade II listed former quarter sessions house (courthouse) in Preston in Lancashire, England. Designed by Thomas Rickman in the Neo-Classical style, building of the courthouse began in 1825. It is now one of the oldest remaining buildings in Preston. The Museum draws on the collections of Lancashire County Museum Service to provide an overview of Lancashire history and heritage told through objects and stories of Lancashire residents.
Having undergone a refurbishment during 2010/11 the Museum contains a range of family friendly and interactive galleries to tell the Lancashire story including:
Lancashire Through Time is based around the County's archeological collections icluding 4,000 year old Stone Age axes, Roman artefacts and early industrial items. Lancashire at Play contains highlights including part of the Hylda Baker costume collection and Les Dawson, George Formby and Gracie Fields material. The Lancashire People Gallery focuses on the Lancashire identity and comprises items loaned by members of the public revealing some exceptional hidden histories. Lancashire Law and Order reveals the building's court house heritage. Responsible for the trials of petty criminals between 1827 to around 1900, the Chairman of the Court, Thomas Batty Addison earned the name of the Terror of the Criminal for his no nonsense approach. This gallery also includes items from the Lancashire Constabulary Police collection, charting the development of the force from 1839 to the present day. Lancashire at Work highlights the range of industries Lancashire has embraced from agriculture to textiles, maritime to engineering trades, not to mention Holland's pies and Uncle Joe's mint balls! Lancashire Goes to War is dominated by an impressive and atmospheric World War I trench. It also displays information about the role of women during the war and how we remember our fallen heroes.
Other interactive galleries include life on the homefront in World War II, and a Victorian classroom.
The Museum is also home to the collections of the Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry and the 14th/20th Kings Hussars.
Famous quotes containing the words museum of and/or museum:
“I have no connections here; only gusty collisions,
rootless seedlings forced into bloom, that collapse.
...
I am the Visiting Poet: a real unicorn,
a wind-up plush dodo, a wax museum of the Movement.
People want to push the buttons and see me glow.”
—Marge Piercy (b. 1936)
“Always clung to by barnacles.”
—Hawaiian saying no. 2661, ‘lelo No’Eau, collected, translated, and annotated by Mary Kawena Pukui, Bishop Museum Press, Hawaii (1983)