The Castleton information centre and museum (The Castleton Information Centre and Museum)

Member Name: micksheff

Product:	The Castleton Information Centre and Museum
Date:	15/06/08 (110 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Free admission, good exhibits

Disadvantages: None for me

Castleton is a popular town in the High Peak region of Derbyshire's Peak District National Park. The Castleton Information Centre & Museum is located right in the centre of the town and provides a fascinating and unique experience for anyone visiting the area that wants to learn a little bit more about this beautiful area.

This building is free to enter and combines both an information centre offering vital local information for the tourists and a museum. The museum occupies the largest part of the building and houses a wide range of different displays and artefacts relating to the local area.

One of the first items that you encounter when you walk into the museum is a head carved out stone. This is kept safely inside a glass display cabinet and the information on the side of this cabinet tells us that this Celtic head was found in a local garden in 1995, where it had formed a feature of the garden wall for the past few centuries. This head is around 2,000 years old and is believed to have been worshipped by the local Brigantine people that occupied this area. They believed that a person's soul was inside his head.

Castleton is famous for its limestone caves and in particular a rare form of mineral called Blue John which is claimed to be only found here. It is not surprising therefore to find that there is quite a large section of this museum relating to the formation, quarrying and its uses in modern day Jewellery and other articles.

Blue John derives its name from the French words Bleu Jaune meaning Blue Yellow and there is no doubt that this is a very pretty semi-precious stone. One of the largest items of Blue John on display here is a huge 18th century fruit bowl.

All of the articles on display here have a direct link to the town. There is a display that covers the geological formation of this area millions of years ago and how the area was shaped through the various periods up to the last age Ice Age 12,000 years ago.

The next section covers the period from the last Ice Age through to the early civilisation of the caves in this area by prehistoric man. There is a lot of information regarding the animals that once roamed freely in this region and there are many bones on display that have been found locally from creatures that have long disappeared from Western Europe.

I was interested to discover that Wolves and Bears probably still survived in this area until as recently as a couple of hundred years ago, and this was probably one of their last remaining strongholds in the British Isles. Other animals like the Woolly Rhinoceros and the Mammoth are now completely extinct.

Elsewhere in the museum there is a section about a local girl that became a nurse in the late 19th century and there are many personal articles on display including certificates of achievement and the uniform that she wore.

I was also fascinated by the sight of a an old wooden coffin bearer. This hand pulled contraption was used in the Town to carry the coffins to the local cemetery for 150 years until 1968. It was made by a local family of undertakers and has remained in their possession ever since. It is on display here on loan from the family.

Apart from Blue John there are also lots of information about potholing and mining which were both prominent in this area and still are today. Many of the local people were employed in the local lead mines and there is a cabinet full of miner's leather boots, lamps and helmets etc.

Another large section of this museum is dedicated to the local school. The current school was built in 1874 but there was a much older school in the village from around 1650. One of the items on display in this section is a maths book belonging to a local girl aged 10. It is dated 1824 and the page is full of handwritten mathematical formulas calculating the length of the sides of various shapes. I studied this page for quite a while and it made no sense to me whatsoever. She was obviously a very clever little girl.

At the end of the museum there is a section that relates to the more modern history of the village. Here you watch actual snippets of film about the local life of the villager's on TV screens from the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's.

This leads nicely back into the Tourist Information Centre where your journey began. Here there are maps, leaflets, computers and a small gift shop.

If you are in Castleton then I would definitely recommend a visit to this place. It is a fascinating place to spend an hour or so of your day and above all it is completely free.

Summary: A great way to learn about the local area