I had not been to Cliffe Castle Museum for over a decade, but after a hospital appointment in Keighley at the weekend and with no further plans that day, I decided to call in and re-acquaint myself on my way home.
I can honestly say the museum is wonderful place and well worth a visit. Full of treasures and a wealth of information about local history, housed in a Victorian neo-gothic castle.
Unfairly, Keighley has often been looked down upon by flash Yorkshire cities like Leeds and posh towns like Ilkley and Harrogate. I also remember a short poem by John Cooper Clarke which just went “I tell you now and I tell you briefly, I never want to go to Keighley”, but this local heritage museum is definitely a reason to come to the town and hopefully will play an important part in Bradford 2025 – when the city and surrounding area gets City of Culture Status.
I parked up along the road, not realising there was a closer car park. This meant I had to walk through a glorious park, past an old bandstand to the museum. The park is now all that is left from a once 300 acre estate.
Between 1875 and 1885, the gardens around the house were developed to reflect the wealth of the owners, the Butterfield family. Ideas from Europe were brought into the designs with terraces, urns, statues and fountains incorporated.
The site was purchased by Sir Bracewell Smith in the 1950’s and donated to the town, along with the funds to convert the house into a Museum and the gardens to be accessed by the public as a park. A Heritage lottery grant in 2017 allowed further restoration of the grounds Victorian splendour.
I spent half an hour exploring the gardens and could have spent longer. It would be great to come back with more time on a sunny summers day. But I did get to see some great ornamental rockwork and the sites rock tunnel.
There is also a glasshouse with great views over the site which has been converted into a café, as well as birdhouses which were enchanting many of the young children who had visited.
Having walked a loop of the garden I came back to the house and spotted the famous Dolphin Lamp on the front lawn. This was once a gas lamp and is decorated around its base with dolphins and the mask of the sea god Neptune.
The lamp was purchased by Sir Henry Butterfield and is the same as those found along the Thames on Victoria Embankment in London, which were designed by George Vulliamy in the 1870’s. It is the only one to be found outside of “that” London.
The original Cliffe Hall and was built here between 1828 and 1833 for Christopher Netherwood, a local lawyer and industrialist, having been designed by George Webster of Kendal.
The house was then let to the Butterfield family who bought the house in 1848. The Butterfield brothers were successful worsted spinners with a number of mills who exported textiles across the world.
In 1874, the Hall was inherited by the flamboyant Henry Isaac Butterfield but suffered severe damage from a gas explosion. Sir Henry rebuilt much of the hall and renamed the building Cliffe Castle.
Later on after Sir Bracewell Smith had donated the site to the town of Keighley, many of the exhibits from the Keighley Museum in the town were moved to Cliffe Castle to be shown off in a grander setting and larger space.
I entered the building and it was great to see that entrance was free. A portrait of Sir Bracewell Smith looking down at me, met me in the hallway.
To the right of the doorway were various Reception Rooms overlooking the gardens including the Music Room or Music Boudoir. Sir Henry Butterfield was passionate about music and used to hold small concerts at the house.
There is a grand staircase heading upstairs passing an impressive Victorian stained glass window with Henry Butterfield and his wife pictured in the glass.
Hanging on the way to the Airedale Gallery is the Butterfield Banner, presented to the Museum in 2005 by the Friends of Cliffe Castle in memory of a founder member John Stanley. It depicts the landscape around Keighley as well as objects you can see in the house.
Another stunning room along the entrance hall was the Grand Salon or Great Drawing Room packed with fine furniture and ornaments which would have been used for both relaxation and entertaining.
Passing through a doorway guarded by Egyptian figures took us into an area all about trades and industry in and around Keighley.
These included Clog Making
Local Keighley Brick Making
As well as an area about spinning yarn and weaving, including a mock-up of Timmy Feathers’s Workshop – the last handloom weaver in the area who died in 1910.
Moving through the museum, I came to an area dedicated to local history. There was a section about the Silsden Hoard, a local find of Roman coins and a gold ring.
But, the history went back further, with a rather impressive Neolithic/bronze age cup and ring marked stone as well as even earlier stone age flints and arrowheads.
There was an interesting section on the local geology. Much of the rocks around the area were formed in a period called the Carboniferous c350 – 300 million years ago. There were some great displays showing what life would have been like during the time. This included many local plant and tree fossils.
There was also a model of a huge amphibian whose fossilised remains have been found in the area.
In this section there was also a long tapestry which must have taken a long time to produce, detailing the story of life on earth from the big bang to modern day. It really was an incredible piece of art.
Retracing my steps, I found the entrance to the Egyptian gallery - a room with a 3,000 year sarcophagus of an Egyptian noble. There were lots of other interesting Egyptian relics on display in this room which then led into the Bracewell Smith Hall.
This room was created in 1959 to show off fine art and sculpture. It was also used for Civic functions.
The museum was like an Aladdin’s Cave. When I thought I had finally seen everything I ended up in an area dedicated to an impressive selection of rocks and minerals from around the world.
I then ended up in the Natural History Gallery – with a fine collection of Victorian taxidermy, with mammals, birds and insects on display. This gallery was busy with children finding these cases of creatures magical.
That was it, after an hour and a half I was finally “museumed out” and couldn’t take any more information in. This was a fascinating visit where I learnt lots and was also so impressed with the diversity of the exhibits and displays.
I hope with continued Council cuts that the Museum remains open as it is such a great community resource. Most of the people in the Museum who I spoke to were locals and of all ethnic backgrounds and most were there with kids. It’s great that Keighley has somewhere where kids can be stimulated and inspired to learn. Long may it continue to inspire locals and visitors from outside the area.
I made a small donation, bought a book from the shop and left.
Well worth a visit.
To find out more: https://bradfordmuseums.org/venue/cliffe-castle-museum/
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