CAWTHORNE VICTORIA JUBILEE MUSEUM

After the formation of the Cawthorne Museum Society in 1884 by the vicar, Charles Tiplady Pratt to encourage local youngsters to become interested in natural history, he housed the collections of exhibits in an old cottage and open the museum on Saturday evenings to members and non members.

Soon the collection of exhibits of natural history together with curios and curiosities from the village and from those parts of the world visited by the local squire and his family of Cannon Hall, grew out of the premises and he managed to convince Sir Walter Spencer Stanhope that a purpose built museum was needed.

The eclectic range of Butterflies and moths, birds and eggs, fossils, stuffed animals, paintings, domestic bygones, war time relics, old school books and memorabilia, a collection of souvenir china, bottles, a cheetah (stroked by many children over the years), a two headed lamb, a mongoose locked in deadly combat with a cobra. Also a 9 1/2 pound gall stone from a horse (we now know that horses do not have gall bladders, but we like to keep the story, and the stone is from a horse's intestine), a figure of John Wesley made from a whale's vertebra, coins and medals, stereoscope, a man-trap, Victorian coffin bier - the list could go on!

The museum is now open to the public, school groups and adult groups visits from Palm Sunday until the last week in October. Group bookings are welcome throughout the year.

The museum is a typical Victorian hotch potch and we wouldn't have it any other way. Whichever way you turn there is something to interest and catch your eye.