Author: Mark Liebenrood

Postdoctoral Researcher

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Museum Snapshots

Edinburgh Wax Museum

Edinburgh Wax Museum

Edinburgh Wax Museum opened in 1976 and was soon attracting more than 230,000 visitors a year. Displays included Scottish historical figures, fictional characters, and, as you might expect, a chamber of horrors.  The museum was curated by Charles Cameron, a professional magician, who also performed as Count Dracula in night-time shows in the Castle Dracula Theatre on the top floor.

Ticket for Castle Dracula's Gothic House of Terror

Despite its popularity the owners decided to sell the premises for office development and the museum closed in 1989, joining the ranks of lost wax museums. The premises were up for sale again in 2008, but it seems nothing came of plans to reopen the museum.

Images via Flickr.

 

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Museum Snapshots

The Spalding Bird Museum

The Spalding Bird Museum was owned by the Spalding Gentlemen’s Society and run by Ashley K. Maples and taxidermist Ben Waltham. It contained 840 specimens of British birds and many other specimens, in 160 display cases. Maples died in 1950 and a lack of funds forced the Society to sell the premises in 1953, when a small part of the collection was moved to Ayscoughee Hall and much of it loaned to Leicester Museum. The Hall closed for refurbishment in 2003, when the whole bird collection was transferred to Leicester Museums Service.

Images via South Holland Life (PDF)

Ben Waltham, taxidermist, with an Osprey in the Bird Museum’s workshop, 1949
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Museum Snapshots

Grange Cavern Military Museum

Grange Cavern Military Museum

The Grange Cavern Military Museum was housed in a limestone cavern near Holywell, Flintshire. The cavern was excavated in the 19th century and taken over by the Ministry of Defence at the beginning of the Second World War. Eleven thousand tons of bombs were stored there including the bouncing bombs of Dambusters fame. The cavern housed over forty military vehicles and a large collection of medals.  It closed around 1989.

Images via Historic Military Vehicle Forum and The Home Front Museum.

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Museum Snapshots

Haxted Water Mill Museum

Cover of a guide to Haxted Water Mill Museum, 1983
Guide to Haxted Water Mill Museum, 1983

Haxted is the oldest mill in Surrey.  The west half dates from about 1680, being built on the foundations of the original 14th century mill; the east half was built in 1797. The mill ceased working in 1949 but was restored as a museum and opened in 1966. At the time of writing the museum seems to be closed.

Image via Mills Archive. See also Exploring Surrey’s Past.

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Museum Snapshots

Guernsey Tomato Museum

guernsey tomato museum postcard

Little is known about the Tomato Museum, which is said to have closed in 1989. Hudson and Nicholls’ Directory, an invaluable resource for museum researchers, describes it in 1985:

History of tomato-growing on the island, in [a] group of glasshouses built at various dates between the 1890s and 1970s. Crops illustrating the history of the glasshouse industry in Guernsey. Tomato-growing equipment, including an early soil-steamer.

Guernsey tomatoes were an important part of the island’s economy, and in 2003 the Guernsey Museum staged an exhibition about the industry, which might give us a flavour of what the now-lost tomato museum was like.

Image via The Dabbler.

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Museum Snapshots

Dinting Railway Centre

The locomotive ‘Scots Guardsman' (built by North British works No.23610 in 1927, rebuilt Crewe 1947) in 1946 LMS lined black livery at the Dinting Railway Centre, April 1980. Six men stand alongside, working on the engine.

The Dinting Railway Centre was open between 1968 and 1990. The brick engine shed was built between 1888 and 1898 for the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway. The centre was run by the Bahamas Locomotive Society, who are based at  Ingrow on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway. An old badge marks the connection between Dinting and the Society.

bahamas locomotive society dinting badge featuring scots guardsman locomotive

The photo above of the locomotive Scots Guardsman, taken by Hugh Llewelyn, is dated April 1980, and another photo shows a different locomotive, the LNER 60532 Blue Peter, at Dinting in 1983.

lner 532 blue peter at dinting in 1983

Photos by Hugh Llewelyn and via Badge Collectors Circle and rmweb.

Update: this post was updated in April 2022 with a new image at the top and some small changes to the text.

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Museum Snapshots

The Teddy Bear Museum

Teddy Bear Museum, Dorset

The Teddy Bear Museum is in Dorchester, Dorset. It first opened in Bournemouth in 1990 as The Bournemouth Bears and in 1995 relocated to Dorchester, where it was renamed Teddy Bear House. It moved again to accommodate a growing collection, and became The Dorset Teddy Bear Museum. It is Britain’s oldest teddy bear museum and its earliest specimen dates from 1906.

The Museum is furnished in period fashion and features life-sized bears who themselves appear to collect teddy bears. The collection includes replicas of some well-known bears such as Winnie the Pooh, Rupert Bear, and Paddington.

Image via The Teddy Bear Museum.

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Museum Snapshots

The Micro Museum

The Micro Museum, Kent

Despite its name, this is not a contender for the UK’s smallest museum. The Micro Museum in Ramsgate, Kent, contains all manner of personal computers, games, small televisions, calculators, and electronic toys. The collection is run by Mike and Carol Deer, whose first computer was the venerable Sinclair ZX81. The addition of a BBC Micro prompted thoughts of a collection, and the Deers have been working on it for around forty years.

Image via the Micro Museum.

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Museum Snapshots

Wigston Framework Knitters Museum

Framework Knitters Museum

The Framework Knitters Museum is in Wigston, near Leicester. The last master hosier to work on the site, Edgar Carter, died in 1952 leaving the workshop locked and intact. As the museum’s website explains, the workshop “contained eight hand frames for making gloves, mitts and fancy ribbed tops for golf hose, together with all the needle moulds and tools associated with each machine”.

Image via the museum’s website.

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Museum Snapshots

Cheltenham College Museum

Cheltenham College Museum

Cheltenham College’s museum was created in 1870, and its emphasis on Natural History can be seen in this photo. The public were admitted on one afternoon a week. In 1923 the museum was moved into a larger and more modern building, but was packed away during the Second World War. The museum closed in 1976, when the collection was sold to Liverpool’s World Museum and what is now Portsmouth University.

Read more about the College’s history.