Abstract
THE Castle Museum, York, of which the nucleus is the collection of Yorkshire “Bygones” formed by Dr. J. L. Kirk, of Pickering, was formally declared open by Lord Middleton, lord lieutenant of the East Riding, on April 23. The Museum is housed in the eighteenth century buildings, formerly the female prison, of York Castle, which, with the exception of the medieval Clifford's Tower, vested in H.M. Commissioners of Works under the Ancient Monuments Acts, is now in the possession and under the control of the Corporation of the City of York. The Corporation will be responsible for the maintenance of the Museum, and the sum of £8,000, in addition to two grants of £500 each from the Carnegie Trustees and the Rowntree Trustees, has been expended on the installation. The exhibits, including a Tudor half-timbered house and fifteen shop-fronts in two and three storied houses flanking a cobbled street, illustrate the life, domestic, commercial and industrial, of Yorkshire over a period of two centuries ending with mid-Victorian times. Among the more striking and characteristic features are old hearths and their furniture and old agricultural implements and horse-brasses. By a judicious arrangement with the former owner, the Corporation has retained the right to enlarge the collection with the view of making the exhibits illustrate as fully as possible the old-time life of the folk of Yorkshire. An annexe, for example, is to be added shortly, which will house specimens of old and obsolete vehicles. As was pointed out at the opening ceremony by Dr. Mortimer Wheeler, president of the Museums Association, the Castle Museum is a valuable addition to the all too scanty collections, which illustrate the past social life of England.
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York Museum of “Bygones”. Nature 141, 779–780 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141779d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141779d0