Museum of North Craven Life at The Folly, Settle
Temporary Exhibitions 2011
The exhibition for 2011 is:
CHALLENGE AND CHANGE: 350 YEARS IN THE LIFE OF A HOUSE
AND ITS REGION
Tuesday 19 April to Sunday 30 October 2011
The exhibition will explore the history of The Folly over the past 350 years
against the backdrop of what was happening in North Craven and further afield
during the same period.
Our main exhibition, occupying the ground floor and main rooms on the first
and second floors, considers some of the ways in which The Folly itself and
North Craven as a whole have responded and are continuing to respond to change
- both good and bad - over the best part of four centuries. To do this we are
looking at a range of themes against the backdrop of a national timeline. Topics
include markets and fairs, family business, agriculture, travel, building development
and many others. The exhibition is rich in objects as well as photographs and
includes many interesting artefacts made in or associated with North Craven.
A reconstruction of Settle smithy in the time of the late Alf Limmer will occupy
the first floor alcove which last year contained the 'washing' display. The
upper staircase walls will be used for the exhibition of portrait photographs
of Settle people in Victorian times and again in 1953.
As a result of our ongoing research into The Folly itself, the existing panels
in the parlour are being completely updated and will include more detail about
the North Range. The opportunity is also being taken to display information
and photographs about the work of the North Craven Building Preservation Trust
over its 40-year history and these panels will occupy space on the first staircase
and landing walls.
The 18 display panels from the exhibition "Challenge and Change"
give an interesting taste of the exhibition, and give an excellent narrative
of the history of various aspects of the local area; the boards are available
in PDF and as a standard web page:
- PDF: at: boards.pdf
(one file, 18-page PDF, 21Mb)
- web page at panels (with individual images and single-page PDFs
Review
There is a review of the exhibition by the Craven Herald (of 12 May 2011):
pdf
(1.2Mb) , reproduced by permission of and with thanks to The Craven Herald http://www.cravenherald.co.uk/.
The text of the Review is:
Whether you are from a long-established Settle family, a visitor curious
to find out more about the place or, like myself, an "offcumden"
who has chosen to make their home in the area, there is something to interest
and intrigue you in this exhibition, which charts how the town has evolved
over the centuries. The exhibition is dedicated to the late Ian Roberts,
a solicitor and local historian who was an active supporter of the Folly
museum. He would surely have been proud of the way in which the exhibition
draws together artefacts donated by families and businesses. A highlight
is the reconstruction of Alf Limmer's smithy, which not only incorporates
authentic tools donated by his family, but also has photographs of Alf at
work. From the wealth of written material on display, it would seem record-keeping
played a large part in local life as there are a range of diaries and ledgers
to browse through which give intriguing insights into earlier lives. Particularly
moving was the request for assistance written on behalf of an illiterate
family, explaining how they were surviving on less than five shillings most
weeks because of the eyesight problems which prevented them from weaving.
The exhibition also highlights how economic developments in national life
impacted on the town, and there is information on how the arrival of the
railways impacted on the locality. Display boards chart how Clapham shunned
the railway, choosing instead to preserve the way of life on the estates.
whereas Hellifield thrived with the arrival of the station which led to
an increase in population and trade. Watching over the displays are photographs
of citizens from earlier times. Among the artefacts are a range of incredible
curios: details of arval cakes, also known as funeral biscuits (these were
made in Settle as late as the 1820s although were unknown in other parts
of the country); a pottery puzzle jug; an intricate diagram detailing how
to improve your memory devised in 1827 by a local educationalist; a photograph
of elephants and camels parading through Settle Market Place and a poignant
reminder of World War One in the form of an embroidered birthday card sent
from the front. The exhibition is a treasure trove, demonstrating local
resilience and adaptability and concluding with details of how forward thinking
continues to shape the area.
You may like to review the events for 2011 on the Events
page, which gives details of events through the season related to the exhibition.
Temporary Exhibitions for other years may be found by clicking on the relevant
links below:
- 2018 (Farms,Flags,Forges; Challenge and Change; Voices from the Land; 1918:The Long Last Mile; Life and Tradition in the Yorkshire Dales)
- 2017 (200 Years of Zion Chapel; Back in Settle:Pastimes in Past Times; Settle Captured in Wool; 1917:Mud and Misery; Tom Twistleton 100)
- 2016 (1916 Chronicles of Courage; Back in Settle; Zion Chapel)
- 2015 (Burton-in-Lonsdale's Potteries; 1915: Reality Hits Home; Textil/Juvel: Swedish Craft)
Nichols; Yorkshire Archaeological Society)
- 2014 (Journeys; The Great War)
- 2013 (Victoria Cave; Judith Bromley and Robert
- 2012 (Dalesman; Sam Dalby; Victoria Cave; Jubilee, 3xNorber)
- 2011 (Challenge and Change: 350 Years in the Life of A House and its Region)
- 2010 (Malham Family of Painters, Landscapes of the Ribble)
- 2009
(Archive Alive; Sheep - Kate Lynch; Craven FA
Centenary)
- 2008 (Annie Farrer; Forest of Bowland; Horner Collection Photographs)
- 2007
(Elgar's 150th birthday; Settle College centenary; Settle Orchestra 40th anniversary)
- 2006 ('Connections: artists and writers in North Craven'; Nov/Dec: Philippa Troutman)
- 2005 ('On the Home Front: North Craven in Wartime', Stitching the Story: Art Connections)
- 2004
(A Century of Service, Education in Malhamdale)
- 2003 (Reginald Farrer, Celia King & Ruth Pavla Davey, Lillian Clark)
- 2002 (Jubilee celebrations, Settle Primary School; details unavailable for
this on this website at present)
- 2001 (Burton-in-Lonsdale Pottery, 1927 Eclipse; details unavailable for this
on this website at present)
Last modified:
Tuesday, 21-Feb-2012 21:58:16 GMT