The Tolson Memorial Museum, also known as Tolson Museum, is housed in Ravensknowle Hall, a Victorian mansion in Ravensknowle Park on Wakefield Road in

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confl ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

, England. The museum was given to the town by Legh Tolson in memory of his two nephews who were killed in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Originally a natural history museum, it is run by Kirklees Council and has a wide range of exhibits related to the area's cultural and industrial history.

History

Ravensknowle Hall was built in the late-1850s for a local textile baron, John Beaumont. The house was designed by the London architect, Richard Tress who designed the mansion in a "palatial Italian style" and cost about £20,000. Beaumont died in 1889 leaving the house to his daughter who sold it to a relative, Legh Tolson. In 1919 Legh Tolson gave Ravensknowle Hall to Huddersfield Corporation to use as a museum in memory of his two nephews, brothers 2nd Lieutenant Robert Huntriss Tolson, killed on 1 July 1916 at the

Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme (; ), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and the French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place between 1 July and 18 Nove ...

, and 2nd Lieutenant James Martin Tolson who died in the closing stages of the

on 2 October 1918. Their sisters were the

suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...

s Catherine Tolson and Helen Tolson. Originally a natural history museum with an extensive collection of rocks and fossils, the museum was formally opened on 27 May 1922 under the directorship of Thomas William Woodhead, a prominent local

plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...

ecologist Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Ecology overlaps with the closely re ...

and Professor of Biology at Huddersfield Technical College, with Seth Lister Mosley being appointed the museum's first

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

. His son, Charles Mosley, was appointed as Assistant Curator before succeeding his father in 1925. Charles remained curator until 1933. The Tolson Museum was revamped in the 1980s to feature the industrial history of the Huddersfield area, including the manufacturing of textiles and road vehicles.

Exhibits

Exhibits of local archaeology, weaving machinery and textiles, and natural history with an extensive collection of stuffed birds occupy the museum galleries. A reconstruction of a Victorian schoolroom allows children to experience the type of teaching used in that era. A ground floor extension at the rear of the building houses a transport exhibition including roadbuilding techniques and horsedrawn and motor vehicles including Britain's rarest car – the three-wheeled LSD – which was manufactured in Huddersfield between 1919 and 1924. It was made by Sykes and Sugden Ltd from 1919 to 1923 and then by the LSD Motor Company in Mirfield from 1923 to 1924. Another local make of car, the Valveless, made by David Brown Ltd., is on display after being recovered from South Africa. The Grade II listed remains of a

hypocaust A hypocaust () is a system of central heating in a building that produces and circulates hot air below the floor of a room, and may also warm the walls with a series of pipes through which the hot air passes. This air can warm the upper floors a ...

, comprising the rubble columns and tiled floor from Slack Roman Fort were moved and reconstructed in Ravensknowle Park.

References

Notes

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