Tolson Museum

Tolson Museum
Tolson Museum
	Tolson Museum in Ravensknowle Park
Location	Huddersfield
Coordinates	53°38′42″N1°45′20″W / 53.6449°N 1.7555°W
Website	Tolson Museum

Last updated April 22, 2024

The Tolson Memorial Museum, also known as Tolson Museum, is housed in Ravensknowle Hall, a Victorian mansion in Ravensknowle Park on Wakefield Road in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. The museum was given to the town by Legh Tolson in memory of his two nephews who were killed in the First World War. Originally a natural history museum, it is run by Kirklees Council and has a wide range of exhibits related to the area's cultural and industrial history.

History

Ravensknowle Hall was built in the late-1850s for a local textile baron, John Beaumont. The house was designed by the London architect, Richard Tress who designed the mansion in a "palatial Italian style" and cost about £20,000. Beaumont died in 1889 leaving the house to his daughter who sold it to a relative, Legh Tolson.^[1]

In 1919 Legh Tolson gave Ravensknowle Hall to Huddersfield Corporation to use as a museum in memory of his two nephews, brothers 2nd Lieutenant Robert Huntriss Tolson, killed on 1 July 1916 at the Battle of the Somme, and 2nd Lieutenant James Martin Tolson who died in the closing stages of the First World War on 2 October 1918.^[2]^[3] Their sisters were the suffragettes Catherine Tolson and Helen Tolson.

Originally a natural history museum with an extensive collection of rocks and fossils,^[4] the museum was formally opened on 27 May 1922 under the directorship of Thomas William Woodhead, a prominent local plant ecologist and Professor of Biology at Huddersfield Technical College, with Seth Lister Mosley being appointed the museum's first curator. His son, Charles Mosley, was appointed as Assistant Curator before succeeding his father in 1925. Charles remained curator until 1933.^[5]

The Tolson Museum was revamped from the 1980s to feature the industrial history of the Huddersfield area, including the manufacturing of textiles and road vehicles.^[6]

Exhibits

Exhibits of local archaeology, weaving machinery and textiles, and natural history with an extensive collection of stuffed birds occupy the museum galleries.^[7] A reconstruction of a Victorian schoolroom allows children to experience the type of teaching used in that era.^[8] A ground floor extension at the rear of the building houses a transport exhibition including roadbuilding techniques and horsedrawn and motor vehicles including Britain's rarest car – the three-wheeled LSD – which was manufactured in Huddersfield between 1919 and 1924. It was made by Sykes and Sugden Ltd from 1919 to 1923 and then by the LSD Motor Company in Mirfield from 1923 to 1924. Another local make of car, the Valveless, made by David Brown Ltd., is on display after being recovered from South Africa.^[6]

The Grade II listed remains of a hypocaust, comprising the rubble columns and tiled floor from Slack Roman Fort were moved and reconstructed in Ravensknowle Park.^[9]

Related Research Articles

West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and Derbyshire to the south, Greater Manchester to the south-west, and Lancashire to the west. The city of Leeds is the largest settlement.

Batley is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England, south-west of Leeds, north-west of Wakefield and Dewsbury, south-east of Bradford and north-east of Huddersfield, in the Heavy Woollen District. In 2011, the population was 48,730.

Red House Museum was a historic house museum, built in 1660 and renovated in the Georgian era. It closed to the public at the end of 2016 but remains as a Grade II* listed building in Gomersal, Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England.

Kirklees is a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England. The borough comprises the ten towns of Batley, Birstall, Cleckheaton, Dewsbury, Heckmondwike, Holmfirth, Huddersfield, Meltham, Mirfield and Slaithwaite. It is governed by Kirklees Council. Kirklees had a population of 422,500 in 2011; it is the third-largest metropolitan district in England by area, behind Doncaster and Leeds.

Huddersfield is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into the similar-sized Colne is to the south of the town centre which then flows into the Calder in the north eastern outskirts of the town.

Skelmanthorpe is a village in the Denby Dale civil parish, in the metropolitan borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England. It is 8 miles (13 km) south-east of Huddersfield. According to the 2011 census, the village had a population of 4,549.

The Colne Valley is a steep sided valley on the east flank of the Pennine Hills in the English county of West Yorkshire. It takes its name from the River Colne which rises above the town of Marsden and flows eastward towards Huddersfield.

The Heavy Woollen District is a region of textile-focused industrial development in West Yorkshire, England. It acquired the name because of the heavyweight cloth manufactured there from the early 19th century.

Clayton West is a village in the parish of Denby Dale, in Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. It had a population of 4.386 and 2,704 in 2008. It is 9 miles (14 km) south-east of Huddersfield and 7 miles (11 km) north-west of Barnsley.

Shepley is a village in the civil parish of Kirkburton, in Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. It lies 8 miles (13 km) south south east of Huddersfield and 6 miles (9.7 km) north west of Penistone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flockton</span> Village in West Yorkshire, England

Flockton is a village in the civil parish of Kirkburton, in Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. It is halfway between Huddersfield and Wakefield. In 2020, the population of Flockton and Flockton Green was estimated to be 2,107.

Newsome is a village situated approximately 1 mile south of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. It is in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees. The village lies at the centre of Newsome Ward to which it gives its name.

Gawthorpe, also known as Gawthorp, is a hamlet in the Kirklees district, in the English county of West Yorkshire, about 4 miles (6 km) east of Huddersfield. The nearest major road is the A642 which passes about 0.3 miles (0.5 km) south of the place. In the 19th century Gawthorpe was listed variously as a village or a hamlet in Lepton township, part of the parish of Kirkheaton in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Coal was mined at Gawthorpe around the middle of the 19th century.

Slack Roman Fort was a castellum near Outlane, to the west of Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, England. Its site is a scheduled monument. The ruins of the fort which lay alongside the Pennine section of the Roman road from Deva Victrix (Chester) to Eboracum (York) are no longer visible. The fort may have been the Cambodunum mentioned as a station on this route in the Antonine Itinerary.

Bagshaw Museum is a local museum in the town of Batley, West Yorkshire. Situated in Wilton Park, the elaborate Gothic Revival mansion was converted into a museum by Walter Bagshaw in 1911. Originally called the Wilton Park Museum, it was renamed after Bagshaw following his death in 1927.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Tolson</span>

Helen Tolson (1888–1955) was an English suffragette from Wilmslow in Cheshire active in the Women's Social and Political Union (WPSU). She was repeatedly arrested in 1908 and 1909.

Catherine Tolson was an English nurse and suffragette from Ilkley in West Yorkshire active in the Women's Social and Political Union. She was arrested and imprisoned in 1909 and 1911 when she went on hunger strike and was force-fed for which she received a Hunger Strike Medal from the WSPU. This was sold at auction in 2004.

Dalton is a ward of Huddersfield in the metropolitan borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. It contains 44 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. All the listed buildings are designated at Grade II, the lowest of the three grades, which is applied to "buildings of national importance and special interest". The ward is to the east and the northeast of the centre of Huddersfield. The southern part of the ward is mainly residential, the eastern part is mainly industrial, and to the west and north are areas of countryside. The Huddersfield Broad Canal runs along the eastern part, and the listed buildings associated with it are locks, bridges and a warehouse. Most of the listed buildings in the residential parts are houses, cottages, shops and associated structures, and in the countryside they are farmhouses and farm buildings. The other listed buildings include churches and related structures, the remains of a hypocaust and a former cloth hall re-erected in a park, a road bridge, mill buildings and a mill chimney.

Seth Lister Mosley FES (1848–1929) was an English naturalist, ornithologist and curator who lived in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. Born into a working-class family, he had little in the way of formal education.

Thomas William Woodhead (1863–1940) was an English plant ecologist. He was early proponent of ecology, who helped the growth of plant ecology as a discipline in England, and later became Professor of Biology at Huddersfield Technical College. He was also a pioneer of pollen analysis.

References

Notes

↑ Sheeran 1993, p. 123
↑ "History spotlight ... Dalton". The Huddersfield Daily Examiner. Retrieved 5 June 2010.
↑ "The soldiers". leeds-pals.com. Retrieved 5 June 2010.
↑ "Discovering UK Collections". Cornucopia. Retrieved 5 June 2010.
↑ Hilary Haigh, E. A. (1992). Huddersfield: A Most Handsome Town. Huddersfield: Kirklees Cultural Services.
1 2 George, David (2002). "The Transport Gallery at the Tolson Memorial Museum, Ravensknowle Hall, Huddersfield". Yorkshire Archaeological Society Industrial History Section. Retrieved 5 June 2010.
↑ Kellaway, Kate (22 November 2009). "To a birdwatcher, one glimpse, one moment is happiness enough". The Observer. Retrieved 5 June 2010.
↑ "Tolson Museum". UK School Museums Group. Retrieved 6 June 2010.
↑ Historic England. "The remains of Hypocaust from Slack Roman Camp re erected in Ravensknowle Park, Wakefield Road (1266976)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 22 August 2015.

Bibliography

Sheeran, George (1993), Brass Castles, Ryburn, ISBN 1-85331-022-0

External links

Pages on the Museum at the website of Kirklees Council

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[FOOTNOTESheeran1993123-1] Sheeran 1993, p. 123

[2] "History spotlight ... Dalton". The Huddersfield Daily Examiner. Retrieved 5 June 2010.

[3] "The soldiers". leeds-pals.com. Retrieved 5 June 2010.

[4] "Discovering UK Collections". Cornucopia. Retrieved 5 June 2010.

[5] Hilary Haigh, E. A. (1992). Huddersfield: A Most Handsome Town. Huddersfield: Kirklees Cultural Services.

[George-6] 1 2 George, David (2002). "The Transport Gallery at the Tolson Memorial Museum, Ravensknowle Hall, Huddersfield". Yorkshire Archaeological Society Industrial History Section. Retrieved 5 June 2010.

[7] Kellaway, Kate (22 November 2009). "To a birdwatcher, one glimpse, one moment is happiness enough". The Observer. Retrieved 5 June 2010.

[8] "Tolson Museum". UK School Museums Group. Retrieved 6 June 2010.

[9] Historic England. "The remains of Hypocaust from Slack Roman Camp re erected in Ravensknowle Park, Wakefield Road (1266976)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 22 August 2015.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]