Nidderdale Museum is a local and social history museum in the market town of Pateley Bridge in Nidderdale, one of the Yorkshire Dales, in North Yorkshire, England.[2] The museum is housed in a former workhouse, and is normally open every day from 1.30 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. from 1 April to 31 October, and on Saturdays and Sundays from 1.30 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. over the winter. There is a small entry charge for adults. Accompanied children are free.[3]
The museum is run by volunteers.[4] The Nidderdale Museum Society has two hundred members, with an elected Committee, and a Board of Trustees.[5]
Exhibits
The exhibits focus on rural life, with sections devoted to agriculture, local industries, religion, transport and costume, set out across 11 rooms. Displays include re-creations of a Victorian schoolroom, a cobbler's workshop, a lead mining tunnel, a Victorianparlour,[1]general store, a 1930s hairdresser's shop and a kitchen. Other displays include historic costumes, agriculture tools and equipment, local industries and transport vehicles.[6]
The museum also has a reference library of books relating to the local history and life of Nidderdale, and materials for local and family history research.[7]
Cobbler's shop
Re-creation of a tunnel in a lead mine
General store from the 1940s
Hairdressing salon from the 1950s
History of the museum
The museum was established in 1975 by a group of local enthusiasts. Some of the group had been members of the local history class which wrote A History of Nidderdale, first published in 1967,[8] and they invited Bernard Jennings, editor of the History, to become one of the first trustees.[6]: 232 Harrogate Borough Council provided premises for the museum in the redundant offices of the Ripon and Pateley Bridge Rural District Council, originally built as a workhouse in 1863.[6]: xvii
In 1990 the museum won the National Heritage Museum of the Year Award for "The Museum which does the Most with the Least".[6]: 247–248 In 2017 the volunteers at Nidderdale Museum were honoured with the Queen's Award.[1][9]