Quirky Britain
By Kate McLelland
Britain’s Strangest Museums
‘Dippy’ the diplodocus – the replica plaster cast skeleton of a long-necked, long-tailed dinosaur – is currently touring the UK, having given up his traditional place as the centrepiece of the great hall at London’s Natural History Museum. We visit museums to view those rare treasures that we could not expect to see anywhere else and Dippy is typical of the sort of highprofile exhibit the public will queue for hours to see. But not all museums can boast exhibits with Dippy’s ‘star quality’: some have built their reputation on being quirky, different and … well, perhaps even a little eccentric. Here are some British museums that are proud to offer a rather different experience to visitors. Derwent Pencil Museum, Keswick (derwentart.com) Yes, that’s right … it’s a museum dedicated to the humble pencil. There’s a good reason for the museum’s location, as Keswick was the first area in Britain where graphite was mined to make pencils. Visitors to the museum can enjoy a wide range of pencil-related exhibits, from a secret pencil collection dating from the Second World War to a giant eight metre long crayon which has entered the Guinness Book of Records as the longest colouring pencil in the world. Cuckooland, Knutsford (cuckoolandmuseum.com) No, it’s not a museum full of stuffed cuckoos. The birds in question are the wooden kind, that always appear on the hour. This impressive collection of 600 cuckoo clocks was put together by brothers Roman and Maz Piekarski, who began training as clock makers in Manchester at the age of fifteen and developed a lifelong interest in the cuckoo clock. Since that time they have bought and renovated rare and notable examples from the Black Forest area of Germany, amassing a world-class collection. Lawnmower World, Southport (lawnmowerworld.co.uk) Ah, the smell of freshly-cut grass! Except you’re probably more likely to detect the aroma of engine oil and polish in this quirky museum dedicated to the lawnmower. At Lawnmower World you’ll find over 250 lawnmowers on show, ranging from the very first examples ever made to a high-tech, robot lawnmower. In a unique twist on celebrity spotting, you can get close to several VIP lawnmowers, including one given to Prince Charles and Princess Diana as a wedding present. The Museum of Witchcraft & Magic, Boscastle (museumofwitchcraftandmagic.co.uk) This year this famous museum, dedicated to everything occult and supernatural, celebrates the sixtieth birthday of its premises in the sleepy Cornish village of Boscastle. Out of the 3,000 objects the museum holds, you will find the usual crystal balls, Ouija boards and broomsticks plus a wealth of unexpected items, such as amulets carried into battle by soldiers in World War One, a Hitler pincushion (promoted by Readers’ Digest magazine as a way of ‘hexing Hitler’) and even a charm for riches, made by placing three bees inside a bottle. They may not feature the likes of Tutankhamun’s golden funerary mask or Shakespeare’s signet ring, but what these little museums lack in high-status exhibits they certainly make up for in terms of enthusiasm and engagement. Let’s hope they continue to amuse, entertain and inform us for many decades to come.
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