Penrith and Eden Museum

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Penrith and Eden Museum
Penrith and Eden Museum.jpg
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Penrith and Eden Museum
Location in Eden, Cumbria
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Penrith and Eden Museum
Location in Cumbria, England
Established1985
Location Penrith, Cumbria
Coordinates 54°39′51″N2°45′04″W / 54.6642°N 2.7512°W / 54.6642; -2.7512
CollectionsLocal history, fine art
Owner Eden District Council
Website Penrith and Eden Museum

Penrith and Eden Museum is a museum in Penrith, Cumbria, England. The museum aims to collect, preserve and display material reflecting the history and culture of Penrith and Eden. The museum is owned and managed by Westmorland and Furness Council. The museum is based in a former school building, known as Robinson's School, which first opened in 1670. [1]

Contents

Exhibits

Museum interior PenrithandEdenMuseumInterior.jpg
Museum interior

Some of the museum's exhibits include a fossil dinosaur footprint from the sandstone of the Eden Valley; objects from the Stone Age and the Roman period, including a coin hoard of over 600 bronze coins dating from about AD 320-340 found at Newby near Shap [2] and Roman jewellery found locally; [3] [4] the medieval seal of Penrith and the old market toll measures; a gold posy ring found on the outskirts of Penrith and inscribed Kepe Faith Till Death; [5] mementoes of local personalities such as Trooper William Pearson, wrestler William Jameson and Percy Toplis, the ‘Monocled Mutineer’; and an elephant's tooth excavated from the bottom of the moat at Penrith Castle. [6]

More recently, the Museum has acquired new finds from the Eden area discovered with metal detectors and declared treasure under the Treasure Act (1996) which are now on display in the Museum. These include a Charles 1st medallion from Kirkby Stephen, a medieval coin hoard from Crosby Ravensworth and a gold and amethyst gemstone ring from Waitby. [7] A Tobacco jar dated 1897 which appears to have been made at the nearby Wetheriggs pottery was given to Penrith and Eden Museum in January 2019. [8]

Fine art collection

The museum's fine art collection [9] includes a group of Dutch and Flemish landscape and genre paintings, [10] as well as British works including examples of the 19th century Penrith artist Jacob Thompson such as The Druids Cutting Down the Mistletoe. [11] It also houses contemporary works by Eden artists Phil Morsman, Alan Stones, Lorna Graves, David Boyd and William S. Cowper.

In December 2019 a picture added to the museum's collection was ‘A Corner of Old Time Penrith’ painted by William Jackson and left to the museum in the will of Mary Laycock Newman of Christchurch. Painted in oils on canvas the subject is dated 1909 and shows shops at the corner of King Street and Market Square, Penrith – including a butcher’s, a fishmonger’s and the premises of John Turner, watchmaker who also traded as a jeweller and gunsmith. [12]

Several items, found by metal detectorists, were acquired by the museum in February 2020 through the Portable Antiquities Scheme. They were valued by the Treasure Valuation Court at the British Museum with the reward shared between the finders and landowners. The finds include a medieval silver finger ring from Kirkby Thore (dating from around AD1150-1250), a medieval gold stirrup-shaped finger ring (dating from around the 13th century AD) which was found at Waitby near Kirkby Stephen and a medieval silver 'teardrop' brooch (made between AD 1200 and 1400). [13]

Accreditation and awards

Penrith and Eden Museum is an accredited museum (No. 153) under the Scheme administered by the Arts Council [14] and a member of the Cumbria Museums Consortium. [15]

In the media

In July 2018 Penrith and Eden Museum featured on the BBC TV series, the Antiques Road Trip with the show focussing on William Jameson (1837-1888), Penrith’s famous Cumberland & Westmorland wrestling champion. The Museum houses a large collection of memorabilia including championship belts and trophies relating to William Jameson. [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cumbria</span> Ceremonial county of England

Cumbria is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Carlisle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westmorland</span> Historic county of England

Westmorland is a historic county in North West England. People of the area are known as Westmerians. The area includes part of the Lake District and the southern Vale of Eden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Appleby-in-Westmorland</span> Market town in Cumbria, England

Appleby-in-Westmorland is a market town and civil parish in Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, England, with a population of 3,048 at the 2011 Census. Crossed by the River Eden, Appleby is the county town of the historic county of Westmorland. It was known just as Appleby until 1974–1976, when the council of the successor parish to the borough changed it to retain the name Westmorland, which was abolished as an administrative area under the Local Government Act 1972, before being revived as Westmorland and Furness in 2023. It lies 14 miles (23 km) south-east of Penrith, 32 miles (51 km) south-east of Carlisle, 27 miles (43 km) north-east of Kendal and 45 miles (72 km) west of Darlington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eden District</span> Former local government district in England

Eden was a local government district in Cumbria, England, based at Penrith Town Hall in Penrith. It was named after the River Eden, which flowed north through the district toward Carlisle. Its population of 49,777 at the 2001 census, increased to 52,564 at the 2011 Census. A 2019 estimate was 53,253. In July 2021 it was announced that, in April 2023, Cumbria would be divided into two unitary authorities. On 1 April 2023, Eden District Council was abolished and its functions transferred to the new authority Westmorland and Furness, which also covers the former districts of Barrow-in-Furness and South Lakeland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penrith, Cumbria</span> Market town in Cumbria, England

Penrith is a market town and civil parish in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. It is less than 3 miles (5 km) outside the Lake District National Park and about 17 miles (27 km) south of Carlisle. It is between the Rivers Petteril and Eamont and just north of the River Lowther. The town had a population of 15,181 at the 2011 census. It is part of historic Cumberland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eden Valley Railway</span> Former railway

The Eden Valley Railway (EVR) was a railway in Cumbria, England. It ran between Clifton Junction near Penrith and Kirkby Stephen via Appleby-in-Westmorland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirkby Stephen</span> Market town in Cumbria, England

Kirkby Stephen is a market town and civil parish in Cumbria, England. It lies on the A685 and is surrounded by sparsely populated hill country, about 25 miles (40 km) from the nearest larger towns, Kendal and Penrith. The River Eden rises 6 miles (10 km) away in the peat bogs below Hugh Seat and passes the eastern edge of the town. At the 2001 census the parish had a population of 1,832. In 2011, it had a population of 1,522.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penrith and The Border (UK Parliament constituency)</span> Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, 1950–2024

Penrith and The Border was a constituency in Cumbria represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. Throughout its existence it elected only members of the Conservative Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westmorland and Lonsdale (UK Parliament constituency)</span> Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, 1983 onwards

Westmorland and Lonsdale is a constituency in the south of Cumbria, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Tim Farron, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats (2015–2017).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shap</span> Village and civil parish in Cumbria, England

Shap is a village and civil parish located among fells and isolated dales in Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, England. The village is in the historic county of Westmorland. The parish had a population of 1,221 in 2001, increasing slightly to 1,264 at the 2011 Census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clifton, Cumbria</span> Village and parish in England

Clifton is a small linear village and civil parish in Cumbria, England. Historically part of Westmorland, it lies 3 miles (4.8 km) south east of Penrith.

The Barony of Westmorland also known as North Westmorland, the Barony of Appleby, Appleshire or the Bottom of Westmorland, was one of two baronies making up the English historical county of Westmorland, the other being the Barony of Kendal. Both of them evolved from medieval feudal baronies. Geographically, the barony covered the northern part of the larger county of the same name, and was divided into two wards – East Ward and West Ward. It covered an area similar to that of the former Eden District of the new county of Cumbria, although it did not include Penrith, which was the administrative capital of the district.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hoxne Hoard</span> Roman hoard found in England

The Hoxne Hoard is the largest hoard of late Roman silver and gold discovered in Britain, and the largest collection of gold and silver coins of the fourth and fifth centuries found anywhere within the former Roman Empire. It was found by Eric Lawes, a metal detectorist in the village of Hoxne in Suffolk, England in 1992. The hoard consists of 14,865 Roman gold, silver, and bronze coins and approximately 200 items of silver tableware and gold jewellery. The objects are now in the British Museum in London, where the most important pieces and a selection of the rest are on permanent display. In 1993, the Treasure Valuation Committee valued the hoard at £1.75 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirkby Thore</span> Human settlement in England

Kirkby Thore is a small village and civil parish in Cumbria, England, in the historic county of Westmorland. It is close to the Lake District national park and the Cumbrian Pennines. It includes the areas of Bridge End, in the southwest by the A66, and Cross End in the northeast of the village. In the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 731, increasing to 758 in the 2011 Census. The market town of Appleby-in-Westmorland is about five miles away, and the larger town of Penrith is about eight miles away.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fishpool Hoard</span> British hoard

In 1966 the Fishpool Hoard of 1,237 15th century gold coins, four rings and four other pieces of jewellery, and two lengths of gold chain was discovered by workmen on a building site near present-day Cambourne Gardens, in Ravenshead, Nottinghamshire, England, an area that was then known as "Fishpool". It is the largest hoard of medieval coins ever found in Britain. To judge from the dates of the coins, the hoard was probably buried in haste at some time between winter 1463 and summer 1464, perhaps by someone fleeing south after the Battle of Hexham in May 1464, in the first stages of England's civil war between aristocratic factions, the War of the Roses. The Fishpool Hoard, on display in Room 40 in the British Museum, London, was listed in 2003 among Our Top Ten Treasures, a special episode of BBC Television series Meet the Ancestors that profiled the ten most important treasures ever unearthed in Britain as voted by a panel of experts from the British Museum. The British Museum assesses the face value of the hoard when deposited, about £400, would be equivalent to around £300,000 today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waitby</span> Human settlement in England

Waitby is a small village and civil parish in Westmorland and Furness Unitary Authority of Cumbria, England. The parish contains two small villages, Waitby and Smardale, plus the small hamlets of Riddlesay, Stripes and Leases, all of which are in the farmed and enclosured northern part at an elevation of around 200–300m. The southern half of the parish is mostly heath and unused for agriculture, it rises to Smardale fell; which it includes, at elevations between 300 and 400m. The civil parish of Ravenstonedale forms the boundary to the south. The western border with Crosby Garrett civil parish is formed by Scandal Beck. To the north and east lie Soulby and Kirkby Stephen civil parishes respectively. The population of the civil parish as measured at the 2011 Census was less than 100. Details are included in the parish of Crosby Garrett.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wetheriggs Pottery</span>

Wetheriggs Pottery is a former pottery on the C3047 road, east of the hamlet of Clifton Dykes, in Clifton, Cumbria, 5 miles (8.0 km) southeast of Penrith in England. It opened in the mid 19th century providing farm and housewares for local consumption, later the business diversified into craft pottery. The property is Grade II listed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westmorland and Furness</span> District in Cumbria, England

Westmorland and Furness is a unitary authority area in Cumbria, England. The economy is mainly focused on tourism around both the Lake District and Cumbria Coast, shipbuilding and the port in Barrow-in-Furness, and agriculture in the rural parts of the area.

References

  1. "350th anniversary of Robinson's School building, home to Penrith and Eden Museum". 13 May 2020.
  2. "Roman coins "find of a lifetime" in Shap field". www.cwherald.com.
  3. "Roman gold jewellery gifted to Penrith and Eden Museum". 17 April 2013.
  4. "Gold Roman jewellery discovered". 19 April 2013 via www.bbc.co.uk.
  5. "Another gold posy ring for Penrith and Eden Museum". 30 June 2015.
  6. "Visit Eden - Results Out for Elephant Tooth". www.visiteden.co.uk.
  7. "More Treasure for Penrith and Eden Museum". www.cumbriacrack.com.
  8. "Wetheriggs tobacco jar donated to Penrith and Eden Museum". www.cumbriacrack.com.
  9. "Eden District Council - Art UK". artuk.org.
  10. "Penrith and Eden Museum".
  11. "Penrith Museum acquires important Jacob Thompson painting". 16 May 2016.
  12. "A Corner of Penrith". cumbriacrack.com.
  13. "Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Treasures at Penrith and Eden Museum". 14 February 2020.
  14. "Museum's Art Council Accreditation Status renewed". cumbriacrack.com.
  15. "Cumbria Museum". cumbriamuseums.org.uk.
  16. "BBC Antiques Road Trip grapples with Penrith and Eden Museum's wrestling memorabilia". 4 September 2017.