adm@gfm – Grassington Folk Museum

Museum News

adm@gfm — Thu, 24 Nov 2022 16:15:42 +0000

Upper Wharfedale Museum celebrated a record number of visitors in 2022, reaching 20,000 for the first time in its history (the previous record was 7,000 in a year). This was due largely to the Museum being open for longer periods following the recruitment drive for additional volunteers, resurgence after the Covid pandemic, and undoubtedly the filming of Channel 5’s All Creatures Great and Small. Avid fans of the series have been flocking to the village from all over the world. The Museum itself took a starring role as the Army Recruitment Headquarters in Series 3.

The Museum has seen the installation of two new display cabinets earlier in the year and is in the process of having a new central heating system installed and a new medical cabinet which should be ready by the end of the year.

The Museum leaflets have also been redesigned and are free to visitors. There is a children’s trail which has proved very popular with the younger visitors.

The Museum website, professionally designed by W3BWORKS, is currently maintained and run by a team of volunteers from the Museum. Please let us know if there are any comments.

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A record 20,000 visitors to the Grassington Folk Museum in 2022

adm@gfm — Thu, 17 Nov 2022 15:07:17 +0000

In 2022 the Museum welcomed a record 20,000 visitors, well above the previous record of 7,000 visitors in a year.

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A Christmas Carol

adm@gfm — Sat, 30 Nov 2013 16:09:36 +0000

On Saturday November 30th 2013 the Museum played host to a rare book by Charles Dickens as is recounted below.

The Museum, Grassington & Charles Dickens

For many years Grassington hosted a Dickensian Festival over 2 weekends each December. Volunteers at the

Museum dressed in Dickensian costume, as did many others in the village establishments. The Museum offered

hot drinks and mince pies in front of a cosy fire in its 17th century kitchen. It has not proved possible to hold

Dickensian Festivals since the start of the Covid 19 pandemic, but a Christmas Market will be held in December

2022.

On Saturday 30th November 2013 the Museum achieved something of a coup, when it had on display a rare 1844 specially bound signed edition of one of Dickens most popular novels ‘A Chrismas Carol’. The book had been bought at auction in New York the previous December and had been on display in the Library of the University of York for much of 2013.

The book was commissioned by Charles Dickens for the widow of his great friend, the Malton-based lawyer Charles Smithson, after his untimely death at the age of 39. There is a long-standing tradition that the office of Scrooge was based on Smithson’s office on Chancery Lane in the North Yorkshire market town and that various characters of Dickens were based upon residents of the area.

The book had been hidden from public view until Christmas 2012 when broadcaster Selina Scott, Malton business man Stephen Joll, and Clair Challenor-Chadwick, MD of Harrogate’s specialist fundraising and marketing company, Cause UK, led the campaign to raise $43,750 in just four weeks to secure the book when it came up for auction in New York.

Many organisations and individuals backed the campaign including the Hon Simon Howard, Chairman of Castle Howard Estate, Malton CIC, local tourism attraction Flamingo Land<, The Malton Museums Trust, and the Malton Dickens Society.

Clair Challenor Chadwick, MD of Cause UK, said: “The book is currently housed at York University and this will be the first official outing since it arrived in Malton. It’s important that as many people in Yorkshire get to see it, as it’s a remarkable legacy to one of the most seminal books in history. Dickens deserves to be part of Yorkshire’s literary heritage, just as the Brontes or Bram Stoker.”

A Christmas Carol has been made into ten films and translated into sixty different languages, as well as inspiring a plethora of adaptations, such as Frank Capra’s, It’s a Wonderful Life.

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The 100,000 ticket sold for entry

adm@gfm — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 17:58:35 +0000

At 11.45am on December 10th 2011 the 100,000th ticket was sold for entry to Upper Wharfedale Folk Museum during the Grassington Dickensian Festival. The ticket was sold to Mr John Vernon and his wife Jenny who were visiting from Chester. They were given a commemorative plate, made for the museum by local craftsman David Ashby, of the Courtyard Pottery in Grassington and presented by David Pritchard, Chairperson of the Museum Committee, and Elaine Clare, a trustee of the museum. The Huddersfield Town Crier, Vic Watson, added colour and volume to the occasion by announcing the event to the assembled throng.

The Museum depends on the support of the public who pay a small entrance fee to look around the local collection of memorabilia, including lead mining, agriculture, all housed in the cottage in the square. So thanks are expressed to all the visitors to the museum since the opening in this venue in 1979 – and to the army of volunteers who have kept it going during that time.

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Grassington Folk Museum Wins Heritage Lottery Fund support

adm@gfm — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 17:39:31 +0000

The Upper Wharfedale Museum Society will be literally ‘raising the roof’ after news today that it has obtained funding worth nearly £50,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for an exciting new project entitled The Crowther Room. Work on the new room will begin in mid March involving the removal of part of the existing roof to create additional head room in the upper floor area, providing a dedicated work space, and archive storage.

The project is named after John Crowther, the Victorian antiquarian who lived in Grassington and founded the first museum. The new space will offer improved facilities for research and study by visitors, community and staff.

The Museum, which is run by volunteers, has, in addition to its permanent display, a large and fascinating collection of artefacts and documents illustrating the life, industry and traditions of the area. It will soon be possible to display these in special exhibitions and forge closer links with community groups, schools and Grassington Hub.

Commenting on the award, David Pritchard, Chairman of UWMS said “I was delighted in December when we had our 100,000th visitor through the door and now we have secured this Heritage Lottery Funding which will enable us to unlock the full potential of this important collection and we anticipate the work to be completed by the end of June this year. 2012 is going to be a very exciting time for volunteers and visitors alike!”

Fiona Spiers, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund – Yorkshire and the Humber, said “Grassington Folk Museum is an important resource for the community as it tells the story of the Upper Wharfedale’s domestic, industrial and geological heritage. We are proud to support this fantastic project that will enable the Museum to open up its collections for the community to explore and enjoy.”

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