News
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Oral History
Please click on the links below to listen to a sample of local oral history collected by Sara Haslam and Marian Barker, featuring John Cooper and James 'Arthur' Monaghan.
ORAL HISTORY - John Cooper
ORAL HISTORY - James 'Arthur' Monaghan
While your on our Youtube page why not check out the promotional animation for the Timeline Workshops
Old House Museum picks up two awards!
Bakewell Old House Museum is thrilled to have won two awards at the Derbyshire Heritage Awards:-
Work with Children and Young People
Judges Special Award for Completion of the HLF Project
A big THANK YOU to everyone for their help and support in achieving this great honour.
Rat Pack Trail - End of Year Winners
We are delighted to announce the winners of the last Rat Pack Trail this year: -
ELISE CHARLTON, who named one of our rats SIR SPRATINGTON.
'This was great fun looking in all places for rats hiding.'
Elise Charlton, aged 10.
EVE CIVIL, who named one of our rats NIBBLES.
Rat Pack Trail - September's Winner
We are delighted to announce the winner of September's Rat Pack Trail: -
EDWARD RHYS WIBBERLEY, aged 7, who named one of our rats THE GERM BRINGER.
Rat Pack Trail - August's Winners
We are delighted to announce the winners of August's Rat Pack Trail: -
OSIAN and IOAN BEYNON, who named one of our rats RATSCALION.
'We enjoyed finding the rats in each room. Osian's favourite part was dressing up and Ioan loved the doll's house!'
Osian, aged 4 and Ioan, aged 2.
LEWIS BAKER, who named one of our rats DAVID CAMERAT.
'I really enjoyed visiting the museum and doing both quizzes. I will come again. Thanks.'
Lewis Baker, aged 10.
MAT MASLENFLUNT, who named our rats the SKIPPING SCURRIERS
Please get in touch to claim your prize.
JESSICA ROBINSON, who named one of our rats RAT-A-CHEWYOMNI-VORACIOUS
Rat Pack Trail - July's Winner
We are delighted to announce the winner of July's Rat Pack Trail: -
GABRIELLE CHLOE STOTT, who named one of our rats TILLY TWIRLY TAIL.
'I really enjoyed the Rat Trail, and especially choosing a name for the rat, it was good fun. I really enjoyed my visit to Bakewell Museum.'
Gabrielle Chloe Stott, aged 9.
Rat Pack Trail - June's Winners
We are delighted to announce the winners of June's Rat Pack Trail: -
JACK NEWELL, who named one of our rats NIGEL THADDEUS SILVERPELT II.
' Fun and full of surprises, The Rat Trail is good for kids who need to test their adventurous side.'
Jack Newell, aged 11.
Rat Pack Trail - May's Winners
We are delighted to announce the winners of May's Rat Pack Trail: -
ANNABEL RUCKLEDGE, who named one of our rats ARISTOC RAT.
' I really liked the Rat Trail and thought the museum was excellent, especially the old toilet!'
Annabel Ruckledge, aged 7.
Code Breakers - Night at The Museum 14th May 7.30pm
Despite the inclement weather over 60 people attended a night of nostalgia at the atmospheric Bakewell Old House Museum. Guests were dressed in gorgeous 1940's fashion and welcomed by the music of Glen Miller, before helping themselves to the fantastic buffet. David Westwood gave a excellent and informative talk about code breaking. Our Bletchley veterans were on hand, giving the evening even greater grandeur. A big thanks to all those who took part in the event. It was a great success!
Rat Pack Trail - April's Winners
We are delighted to announce the winners of April's Rat Pack Trail: -
JOSEPH GREAVES, who named one of our rats GARDEROBE GORDON.
' I liked doing the rat trail it was great fun finding them. I enjoyed your museum and I have told all my friends about it too. Thank you.'
Joseph Greaves, aged 10.
Code Breakers - Night at The Museum 14th May 7.30pm
The night will be a fabulous look at Bletchley Park with memories from two Bletchley verterans, who are amoungst our volunteers.
Also, David Westwood, a retired solder and author of U-Boat War will be attending the Code Breakers event on 14th May. He will give a talk about 'Ultra' a German Encoding system and show how decrypts of German secret communications were used to benefit the conduct of the war in the Atlantic. In addition, he will discuss how information of great importance was disregarded. David has a small publishing and reprinting company near Buxton that reprints military historical material on the behalf of the British Ministry of Defence. His PhD thesis was an examination of the German U-Boat Arm 1939 - 1945.
Why not come along, croon to Vera Lyn and dance the night away to Glen Miller. Enjoy sumptious food from the catering team all washed down with a pint of Thornbridge best brew or fine wine on tap.
There are still tickets available for this event. Contact Anita Spencer on 01629 813642 or call in at the museum.
Adult tickets £9 Children £6
Red Ribbon Time at the Old House Museum
Time: 7.30 pm on a rather rainy evening.
Place: the Old House Museum, Bakewell
Occasion: The end of a 3-year project, funded largely by the Heritage Lottery, culminating in the opening of the new Industrial Gallery by Lord Edward Manners.
About 50 guests, including Lord Edward, building contractors, the Chair of the East Midlands Lottery Fund, Town and County Councillors, members of the Peak District National Park, a representative from Thornbridge Brewery who have sponsored 64,000 new museum leaflets, as well as the museum committee and other friends gathered in the new courtyard to enjoy a glass of wine and canapes before the opening ceremony.
Seated under the splendid new awning, which kept off the spasmodic but heavy showers, guests were welcomed by Jan Stetka, Chair of the Bakewell and District Historical Society which owns and manages the museum. Jan expressed thanks for the Heritage Lottery funding, for the Sustainable Development grant from PDNP and for help and advice from individual members of those organisations. HLF require recipients of a grant to raise 10% of the money themselves through volunteer hours. In the museum's case this meant 300 days of volunteer effort. There are approximately 100 volunteers who give their time to the museum in various ways: 36 of them became involved in the project. The number of hours clocked up by these people eventually added up to 1000. Jan (a volunteer himself) congratulated them on this achievement and then handed over to George Challenger, Chair of the museum committee, who has worked as a volunteer at the museum for 40 years!
George made brief reference to the history of the museum: the Tudor house was rescued from imminent demolition by the newly-formed Historical Society in 1954 and given to the Society by its owners, Bernard and Violet Harrison, to be used as as museum. The first room was opened in 1959 and by 1870 most of the house had become accessible to visitors. Referring to the current development George explained that the new courtyard, gallery and sculpture were a major part of the project but that much other work had been done inside the original house. This included a new office, new kitchen, environmentally-controlled store, rewiring the whole building and lime-plastering the parlour and parlour closet. He described the project as being of a 'DIY' nature because of the large involvement of volunteers instead of paid contractors wherever possible. He paid tribute to Anita Spencer, the museum manager, whose hard work, enthusiasm and cheerfulness contribute so much to the museum's success. He also mentioned the museum's community involvement, linking with the Parish Church over the restoration of the Viking Age sculptures, the history trail to the Thornbridge Brewery and, latterly, the connection with Haddon Hall. Our special guest, Lord Edward Manners, has become Patron of the Historical Society. George then spoke of the late Alan Smith, an active member of the Society and museum who conceived the original idea for an Industrial Gallery. Sadly both he and his wife Maureen, also a keen supporter of the museum, died before they could see his ideas take shape. The Historical Society has dedicated a garden bench to their memory. George then asked their daughter to carry out another of Alan's ideas which was to ring the Lumford Bell for all Bakewell to hear that the project was complete!
Lord Edward then spoke warmly about the museum and the hard work of so many people which had resulted in the successful completion of the project. He congratulated everyone involved saying that he was delighted to be the new Patron of the Society and hoped for future links between it and Haddon Hall. He then cut the red ribbon across the gallery and declared it open.
By this time dusk had fallen but the courtyard was lit so guests lingered on, chatting and enjoying the food and wine in convivial atmosphere.
