Grosvenor Museum is a museum in

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county tow ...

, in the United Kingdom. It is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...

as a designated Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

. Its full title is The Grosvenor Museum of Natural History and Archaeology, with Schools of Science and Art, for Chester, Cheshire and North Wales. It takes its name from the family name of the

Dukes of Westminster Duke of Westminster is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created by Queen Victoria in 1874 and bestowed upon Hugh Grosvenor, 3rd Marquess of Westminster. It is the most recent dukedom conferred on someone not related to the ...

, who are major landowners in Cheshire. The museum opened in 1886, it was extended in 1894, and major refurbishments took place between 1989 and 1999. Its contents include

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

items from the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

period, paintings, musical instruments, and a room arranged as a Victorian

parlour A parlour (or parlor) is a reception room or public space. In medieval Christian Europe, the "outer parlour" was the room where the monks or nuns conducted business with those outside the monastery and the "inner parlour" was used for necessar ...

Early history

Grosvenor Museum was founded in 1885, largely due to the inspiration and work of the Chester Society for Natural Science, Literature and Art. This society had been founded in 1871 by

Charles Kingsley Charles Kingsley (12 June 1819 – 23 January 1875) was a broad church priest of the Church of England, a university professor, social reformer, historian, novelist and poet. He is particularly associated with Christian socialism, the worki ...

, who was at that time a

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

Chester Cathedral Chester Cathedral is a Church of England cathedral and the mother church of the Diocese of Chester. It is located in the city of Chester, Cheshire, England. The cathedral, formerly the abbey church of a Benedictine monastery dedicated to Sa ...

. In 1873 it joined forces with the Chester Archaeological Society and the Schools of Science and Art to raise money to build the museum. A sum of £11,000 (£ in ) was raised, which included a donation of £4,000 (£ in ) from the First Duke of Westminster. The Duke also gave a plot of land in Grosvenor Street. Thomas Lockwood was appointed as architect. The

foundation stone The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. Over tim ...

was laid on 3 February 1885 by the Duke, and the museum was officially opened by him on 9 August 1886. A major extension was built in 1894. The first curator was Robert Newstead, who served in this position from 1886 to 1913 and again from 1922 to 1947. Newstead later became

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professo ...

Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

Entomology Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as ara ...

Liverpool University , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

and was made a

freeman Freeman, free men, or variant, may refer to: * a member of the Third Estate in medieval society (commoners), see estates of the realm * Freeman, an apprentice who has been granted freedom of the company, was a rank within Livery companies * Free ...

of Chester. In 1915 the City of Chester took over the administration of the museum, and in 1938 the authority took full control of the collections and displays.

Architecture

The museum is in Ruabon red brick with

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicat ...

dressings, and it has a red tile roof in free

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...

style. Above the door are

spandrel A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fill ...

s with carvings representing Science and Art. The

Dutch gable A Dutch gable or Flemish gable is a gable whose sides have a shape made up of one or more curves and has a pediment at the top. The gable may be an entirely decorative projection above a flat section of roof line, or may be the termination of a ...

s are carved with peacocks flanked by the supporters of the Grosvenor arms. In the entrance hall are four columns made from Shap

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

, and a

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

which features the city arms, which was made by the firm of Ludwig Oppenheimer.

More recent history

In 1947 Graham Webster took over as curator and devised the Newstead Gallery, named after his predecessor, which opened in 1953. Webster saved 20 Castle Street from demolition and created in it the first period room, the Victorian Parlour, which opened in 1955. Numismatist

Elizabeth Pirie Elizabeth Jean Elphinstone Pirie (14 September 1932 – 1 March 2005) was a British numismatist specialising in ninth-century Northumbrian coinage, and museum curator, latterly as Keeper of Archaeology at Leeds City Museum from 1960–91. She wr ...

began her career there in 1955. A new art gallery was created in 1989. In 1990 a major reconstruction took place, refurbishing all the public galleries. The museum was re-opened in 1992 by the

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...

. In 1993 the Webster Roman Stones Gallery won the North West Museum of the Year award, and in 1999 the museum was awarded £300,000 from the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

to make improvements on accessibility and to create a new shop. This was re-opened in 2000, giving full ground-floor access to all visitors.

Present day

The museum has over 100,000 visitors each year. The Education Service is housed on the top floor of the museum and gives opportunities for children to learn about the history of the city. The museum contains a collection of Roman tombstones. It also owns 23 paintings by

Louise Rayner Louise Ingram Rayner (21 June 1832 – 8 October 1924) was a British watercolour artist. Family Rayner was born in Matlock Bath in Derbyshire.Simon Fenwick, ‘Rayner, Samuel (1806–1879)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford ...

, which is the largest number in any public collection. The museum also holds six recorders made by Peter Bressan; four of these form the only complete set of Bressan recorders in the country. A programme of temporary exhibitions is arranged by the museum. The museum is open on most days of the year, and admission is free.

References

Citations Sources *

External links