Lancashire Museums

The historic county of Lancashire has a rich and varied range of museums, despite not having towns with comparable "heritage appeal" as Chester, Carlisle and York in its neighbouring counties.

Museums based in the grand houses of previous centuries are well represented. The grandest of these is probably Lancaster Castle, which has a particularly good website. Astley Hall in Chorley dates from Elizabethan times, although it was substantially remodelled on a number of occasions and much of its collection is nineteenth century. Holker Hall, just over the county border in Cumbria, is another grand house and is still the home of the Cavendish family. It also hosts the Lakeland Motor Museum. Gawthorpe Hall near Burnley is set out as an aristocratic nineteenth century aristocratic residence and also includes a collection of needlework and textiles.

There are a number of museums housed in more modest halls. Smithills Hall in Bolton incorporates a range of architecture from the medieval to ninenteeth century.  Also in Bolton is the Hall i' th' Wood, which was once occupied by Samuel Crompton the inventor of the spinning mule. Its collection is primarily of nineteenth century social history and textile history. In Salford, Ordsall Hall has a mix of collections relating to the previous owners as well as local history.  Whitaker Park is host to the Rossendale Museum, with its collections of Victoriana and local history. At the far end of the scale in terms of the grandness of dwellings is Lancaster's Cottage Museum, once again arranged as a museum of Victorian life.

There are also a number of specialist museums. The economic heritage of the county is represented in the form of the two textile museums at Helmshore Mills in Rossendale and Queen Street Mill in Burnley, the latter of which is the world's only remaining Victorian steam powered weaving mill. The fishing industry and heritage of Lancashire's extensive coastal communities is represented at Fleetwood Museum, complementing the story of the port of Lancaster told at the Lancaster Maritime Museum. The Merseyside Maritime Museum tells the tale of the county's premier port. Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry has some local history exhibits but focuses on a mix of industrial heritage and broader science themes. Manchester also has its own Police Museum, and is home to the Jewish Museum which helps tell the tale of an important community in the development of Manchester.

Also in Manchester, Urbis is a museum of "The City" and has a varied and innovative series of exhibitions about city life in the international context. Across the water in Salford is the northern branch of the Imperial War Museum with its striking modernist architecture and range of exhibitions on war related themes (from the first world war onwards). The People's History Museum, in Manchester, tells the story of "ordinary" men and women and their struggles and is also the home of important archives relating to labour history. Liverpool's new International Museum of Slavery is dedicated to telling the largely untold story of slavery and its importance to the economy of Britain as well as its legacy today. The Costume Gallery of Manchester City Art Gallery contains 20,000 items of clothing and accessories dating from the eighteenth century to the current day. There is also a volunteer-run Museum of Transport in Manchester.

The World Museum Liverpool has an extensive general collection from many parts of the world, and like its opposite number the Manchester Museum, has an impressive ancient Egyptian collection. The Museum of Lancashire has local history collections which enable it to represent life in Lancashire in Victorian and later periods, and it also displays items relating to the history of Lancashire regiments. Bolton Museum has a particularly varied collection for a local museum, including natural history and Egyptology collections. Lancaster City museum includes both local history collections and is the home of the museum of the Kings Own Royal regiment.