Established | 1931 |
---|---|
Location | Wardown Park, Old Bedford Road, Luton, England |
Coordinates | 51°53′46″N0°25′05″W / 51.896°N 0.418°W |
Type | Crafts of Bedfordshire |
Website | Wardown House, Museum & Gallery |
Wardown House Museum and Gallery, formerly Wardown Park Museum and, before that, the Luton Museum & Art Gallery, in Luton, is housed in a large Victorian mansion in Wardown Park on the outskirts of the town centre. The museum collection focuses on the traditional crafts of Bedfordshire, notably lace-making and hat-making. There are samples of Bedfordshire lace from as early as the 17th century.
Robert How built the first property within the park, called Bramingham Shott, which is the current home to the museum. [1] In the early 1870s the estate was taken over by local solicitor, Frank Chapman-Scargill, he rebuilt much of the earlier house in 1879 for a total cost of £10,000. Scargill left Luton in 1893 and the house and property was acquired by lime burner Benjamin John Harfield Forder, who renamed the estate Wardown, after the hill (War Down) behind his family home at Buriton, Hampshire. [2]
In 1903, Forder and his partners, Halley Stewart and Sir Malcolm Stewart, who later acquired the London Brick Company, decided to sell the house and 11-acre (4.5 ha) park, and placed the property up for sale. The property was bought by Luton Council in 1904. [1] Over the next few years extensive improvements were implemented, many new trees were planted, as well as new footpaths and bridges being constructed. The layout of the park today is very much as it was in this period. A bowling green was built in 1905. [1]
During the First World War Wardown House was pressed into service as a hospital, firstly by the Royal Army Medical Corps, and then the Voluntary Aid Detachments of the British Red Cross Society. [3] Mrs Nora Durler and Mrs Mary Green were the Joint Commandants. [3] The Luton Museum was transferred to the house in 1931. [1]
The museum has a collection of circa 700 hats and pieces of headwear. [4] The Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment gallery, produced by the Imperial War Museum, explains the history of the local regiment. [5]
The first floor galleries were refurbished and opened as the Luton Life displays in February 2003. This was partly funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The museum displays explore stories of Luton people over the past 150 years. [6]
The ground floor displays include the Living Landscape gallery which displays local archaeology and natural history, including the Shillington Roman coin hoard [7] and an Iron Age mirror. [8]
The jug is a rare surviving example of an English bronze jug from the 15th century, with great significance for the study of bronze working in medieval England. It was nearly sold to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art for £750,000 [9] but was export-stopped in October 2005 by culture minister, David Lammy, based on a recommendation by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest, run by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. Instead it was bought by Luton Museums Service for 300 times its normal annual acquisitions budget to equal the offer of the Metropolitan. [10] On 14 May 2012 it was reported [11] that the jug had been stolen following a break in at the Stockwood Discovery Centre in Luton. It was recovered after being found in a lock-up garage in Epsom on 24 September 2012. [12]
Luton is a town and unitary authority with borough status in Bedfordshire, England, with a population at the 2021 census of 225,262.
Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckinghamshire to the west. The largest settlement is Luton (225,262), and Bedford is the county town.
Private Samuel Needham VC was a British Army soldier and an English recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
Luton South and South Bedfordshire is a constituency in Bedfordshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Rachel Hopkins, a member of the Labour Party.
Farley Hill is a suburb of south Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The area is roughly bounded by the Dallow Downs to the north and north-east, Stockwood Park to the south, the M1 motorway to the west, and Wilsden Avenue and Bolingbroke Road to the east.
Stockwood Discovery Centre, formerly known as Stockwood Craft Museum, is one of two free admission museums situated in Luton. The museums in Luton are a part of a charitable trust, Luton Culture.
Wardown Park is situated on the River Lea in Luton. The park has various sporting facilities, is home to the Wardown Park Museum and contains formal gardens. The park is located between Old Bedford Road and the A6, New Bedford Road and is within walking distance of the town centre.It is Grade II listed in Historic England's Register of Parks and Gardens.
The Mossman Carriage Collection is a museum housing a collection of horse-drawn vehicles in Stockwood Park, Luton, Bedfordshire. It is the largest collection of such vehicles in the United Kingdom, and includes original vehicles dating from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.
Stockwood Park is a large urban park in Luton, Bedfordshire, in the Farley Hill estate. With period formal gardens, leading crafts museums, Stockwood Park Rugby Club and extensive golfing facilities, it is about 100 hectares in area.
Luton International Carnival is a large carnival in Luton, Bedfordshire. The carnival is commissioned by Luton Borough Council and is artistically produced by UK Centre for Carnival Arts, which is based in Luton town centre.
Crawley Green is a suburb of south-east Luton near to London Luton Airport, in the Borough of Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The area is roughly bounded by Crawley Green Road to the north, Devon Road to the south, the Midland Main Line to the west, and Vauxhall Way to the east.
In countries whose armies are organised on a regimental basis, such as the army of the United Kingdom, a regimental museum is a military museum dedicated to the history of a specific army regiment.
This is an outline of Sport in Bedfordshire, a county in England.
Luton Corporation Tramways served the town of Luton in Bedfordshire from 21 February 1908 until 16 April 1932.
High Town is an inner area of Luton immediately north of Luton railway station, and a ward of the Borough of Luton, in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England.
The Wenlok jug or Wenlock jug is a rare surviving example of an English bronze jug from the 15th century, with great significance for the study of bronze working in medieval England. Only two similar jugs are known in the UK. The Wenlok jug is the smallest of the three, but bears the earliest maker's mark for the English founder - possibly a bell founder - who cast it. The other examples are the Asante Ewer, which retains its lid and is held by the British Museum having been found at Kumasi in the Gold Coast in 1896 during the Anglo-Ashanti wars, and the Robinson jug, which was found in a farmhouse in Norfolk in the 1879 and is now in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum. All bear inscriptions in English and were made from leaded bronze, an alloy of copper, tin and lead, cast in a two-part mould in a similar manner using bronze spacers to separate the inner and outer moulds, with similar decorative motifs.
Margaret Mary Appleton is an English museum director. She has been the Chief Executive Officer of the RAF Museum since 2015.
The Shillington Hoard is a Roman coin hoard found in Shillington, Bedfordshire in 1998. It consisted of 127 gold aurei, the latest of which was from 79 AD. The coins were issued by Tiberius, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian.