The Central Bedchamber is today used to house the social history exhibits, telling the story of Bakewell and the surrounding area.
This is one of the rooms in the central bedchamber, a room which became the bedroom of one of the tenements created by Arkwright. This is an original window installed by Arkwright.
Black marble
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Black Marble
The beautiful table-top displayed here is made of black marble, which is really a dark limestone quarried locally and is not a true marble in the geological sense.
It was sawn to produce smooth, flat items such as fire places, and monuments in churches, and turned on a lathe to make urns, candle sticks and such like.
Once polished, its shiny black surface is highly decorative and can be inlaid with other decorative stones and minerals using a technique known as pietra dura which you see here.
Henry Watson built the first marble mill near Ashford in 1748 and another was across the river from Bakewell. Inlaying was done in small workshops that ceased early last century.
Black marble can be seen in Chatsworth House... and Buxton Museum has the best collection of Black Marble ornaments.
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