 |
| A general view of the Victoria Jubilee Museum |
When I first visited the village of Cawthorne in April 2019, although the Victoria Jubilee Museum wasn’t open to the general public that day, I took advantage of an event arranged for its volunteers to make enquiries about the large rocks on its front steps.
Much to my surprise, I was invited in for a glass of wine and, having got a glimpse of the extremely diverse collection of objects that had been acquired by the Spencer-Stanhope family, I made a decision to come back to have another look in the summer.
 |
| A description of a glacial erratic |
On the Saturday that I returned to Cawthorne, it had always been by plan to spend some of the morning in Barnsley, to see the current exhibitions at the Cooper Gallery and The Civic; however, the day also coincided with the opening of the new library, the Lord Mayor’s Parade and an open day at Barnsley Town Hall.
 |
| The Art Deco travertine staircase in Barnsley Town Hall |
By the time that I eventually arrived at the museum, after visiting All Saints church and exploring parts of the village that I had not seen before, I only had an hour to look around before I had to catch my bus back to Barnsley, which had reduced considerably after talking to various people that I had met on my previous visit.
 |
| Display cabinets with various geological specimens |
As a geologist, their extensive collection of rocks, minerals and fossils had then caught my eye and I spent most of my remaining time in the museum taking a few general photographs of them.
 |
| Various fossils and sea shells |
The specimens that are laid out in the traditional glass display cases are all labelled and, although set out rather haphazardly, form quite a decent collection. At a time when many publicly funded museums seem to place little value on their geology collections, and keep them away from public view, it is good to see them on display.
 |
| Miscellaneous geological specimens |
No comments:
Post a Comment