Keswick Museum and Art Gallery

The collection was established as the Keswick Museum of Local and Natural History, a creation of the Keswick Literary and Scientific Society, in the Moot Hall, in 1873. An important item in the original collection at the Moot Hall was a three-dimensional model of the Lake District, measuring 12 feet by 9 feet, made by Joseph Flintoft in 1837. The Fitz Park Trust got into financial difficulties and the collection was rescued by Allerdale Council in April 1994. Then, in February 2007, Keswick Museum and Art Gallery Management Limited was formed to operate the museum on behalf of the council as the sole trustee. The building was extensively refurbished, with financial support from the Heritage…

The museum has a collection of about 20,000 objects, of which 5-10% are on display. While these include material relating to the whole of north Cumbria, the museum now only collects items from the Derwent Seven Parishes, approximately the CA12 postcode area. The collection includes artifacts from Keswick's landscape, history, arts and culture as well as the three-dimensional model made by Joseph Flintoft. Other items in the collection include a 700-year-old cat (found mummified within the wall of a church at Clifton near Penrith), and a collection of around 80 pieces of work by the Keswick School of Industrial Art. The museum holds various documents, maps and literary materials associated…