The phrase “You Learn Something New Every Day” springs to mind when I think of my trip to the Harris Museum and Art Gallery in Preston. But actually it was more like ‘many things’!

Who knew Preston was the birthplace of the UK’s motorway network? The creator of teetotalism? Home to the tallest church in England that isn’t a cathedral? Or that it has the last remaining guild celebration in Britain? And it was the largest single working dock up till the 1980’s… Not bad for an inland town!

That’s what I love so much about visiting local museums. You get an enriched experience of a place when you’re more knowledgeable about its history and people and why certain buildings or structures are located where they are and look the way they do. Also what influences the name of a place is important as well as what events lead to the creation of places, customs and festivals. You can often unravel all this at an area’s local museum and Preston was no different. The Harris Museum and Art Gallery proved to be enlightening.

If you want to learn about the exterior of the Harris Museum, give my previous post a read: Architecture in Preston: A Tour of the City Centre

This post is all about the riches found inside the gallery and museum. Interestingly, the carving on the outside of the building demonstrates this. “The mental riches you may here acquire abide with you always.”

Interior of the Harris Museum and Art Gallery

The entrance to the Harris Museum and Art Gallery resembles that of a grand but understated hotel. The doorway is flanked by two old fashioned gas lamps and is unusually hidden from view of the market square. Inside, a grand staircase peels off both sides of the atrium and ascends up through two upper floors. These are adorned by paintings from the collection.

Ahead is the central hall that rises to the full height of the building through a circular opening. Here you’ll find the gallery cafe with its seating positioned in the centre of the opening. Ionic columns surround this area and support the gallery above.

The exhibits start on the first floor stairway hall and this is where I initially discovered Preston’s claim to be the birthplace of teetotalism. In one of the cabinets there is one of the earliest examples of the word in use and on a teapot no less. Make sure you don’t miss this as you make your way through to the galleries.

The first floor balcony area in the main hall is home to the ceramics and glass gallery. From here you get the best view looking down through the circular opening to the cafe and looking up through a much bigger square opening to the roof. The second floor balcony is held up by four Doric columns.

You can really see the influence of classical Greek and Egyptian architecture in the Harris Museum and Art Gallery, from the different column styles to the mosaic tiles on the floor and the stunning friezes. These are reproductions of Greek and Assyrian works including some from the Parthenon in Athens.

Tour the Egyptian Balcony

You can find further details of the interior architecture here. The Harris Museum and Art Gallery actually runs tours of its Egyptian balcony so you can learn about the impressive friezes. It costs just £1.00 to join and last 45 minutes. You can find future tour dates and booking details on the museum’s website.

Decorative Arts at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery

For anyone with an interest in decorative arts, the Harris Museum and Art Gallery’s collection is worth a look. There is an extensive collection of both glass and ceramics, most of which are British in origin, though there are some pieces of ancient Greek pottery on display. The ceramics collection was born from a bequest of 400 items by a local Prestonian back in 1910. It has grown in number ever since to approximately 2400 pieces today. Amongst the collection you’ll find pieces by well-known producers such as Minton, Wedgewood, Derby and Doulton.

The glass collection is what fascinated me the most in this gallery. I have always been completely in awe of how glass is produced and formed into beautiful shapes, regularly standing entranced at glass blowing demonstrations. The information boards in the gallery detail this process. My favourite piece in the collection is this beautiful spun glass ship, c1830 which was made at a local St Helen’s workshop. I later learned that items like this are known as ‘friggers’ – the term used for a novelty item.

 

After marvelling at the crafts on display, I was drawn to the Discover Preston gallery. As you can see from previous images, each side of the central hall has a door through to another space. From the first floor hall you’ll find the Museum Office, an area dedicated to Community History and lastly the Discover Preston gallery.

Discover Preston at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery

Laid out in a very traditional museum manner, this is where I found all sorts of intriguing information about Preston.

Preston Guild

I often hear Preston referred to as a Guild City, but I never realised what this actually meant. The information boards that greet you on entering the exhibit are all about this status. Most people are aware of what a Guild is: an organisation of traders, artisans and craftsmen in a specific area formed to protect the practice and quality of that trade/craft. They are the forerunners of our more recognisable trade unions and associations of today.

The Preston Guild dates back to 1179 when Henry II gave Preston the right to have a Guild Merchant by Royal Charter. To make sure records were kept up to date, a public court was formed. Members had to attend to prove their membership and be permitted to continue practising their trade. It was decided that this only had to happen once in a generation, so from 1542 the Guild Court has taken place every 20 years, except during World War II.

Naturally big gatherings of people generate celebrations and the Guild Court was no different. Even when the Guilds lost control over the trades in Preston in 1790, the celebration which had become a tradition was upheld and still continues today, the last being held in 2012. It is the only one remaining in the UK and something the city is justly proud of. Celebratory events happen throughout the Guild year with the main celebrations taking place in September. These include big live music shows as well as arts, fashion, drama and food events. You’ll have to wait until 2032 for the next one though.

The phrase “once in a Preston Guild” is used locally and refers to something only happening very occasionally, much like “once in a blue moon”. So, should you hear it, at least you’ll know what it means.

The Birthplace of Teetotalism

The numerous beer mats and bottles on display could only be linked to Preston’s accolade of being ‘Teetotal Town’. You’ll read all about Joseph Livesey who became leader of the temperance movement after convincing many to sign a pledge of total abstinence from alcohol in 1832. He went on to write speeches and give lectures on the dangers of alcohol, set up the first temperance hotel and printed the first teetotal magazine.

Cotton Manufacturing

Preston’s link to the industrial revolution was a massive revelation to me. I had no idea that Richard Arkwright, a key figure in the industrial revolution and generally associated with Derbyshire was actually born in Preston. He developed the ground-breaking method of spinning yarn mechanically at his home in Stoneygate. He then used this knowledge to set up his cotton manufacturing mill in Derbyshire utilising the fast flowing River Derwent.

The model that dominates one end of the Discover Preston gallery provides a more tangible link to the cotton industry (although the buildings in reality are no longer there). This is the 1791 Horrocks Yard Works which was once one of the largest cotton manufacturing plants in the UK.

A Slice of Greece in Preston

You can’t help but notice the marvellous stained glass window at this end of the exhibition. Designed by artist Henry Holiday, it is inspired by ancient Greece and links to the neo-classical architecture of the gallery. The exterior ionic columns of the Harris Museum and Art Gallery appear in the window. You can read about the museum’s architecture in my previous blog on Preston. The figures in the window are of Greek artists, writers and scientists and reflect the motto carved on the front of the building: “To Literature, Arts and Sciences”  The middle panel is inspired by the horse riders that appear in the Parthenon’s frieze in Athens.

The Preston Lamb

Many cities and towns have an image that they have adopted as their symbol. Well, Preston’s is a lamb, another nugget of information I was not aware of. The display shows all sorts of items, merchandise and photos of places that feature the lamb. It pops up on buildings, in football strips and within company logos. Although its origins date back to medieval times where it was used as an administrative seal, it only became the council’s official coat of arms in 1950. I’ll certainly keep my eye out for the Lamb image around Preston from now on. At least I now know of its significance.

The Port of Preston

I was suitably impressed by the fact that Preston as an inland town had the largest single working dock for nearly 100 years. The exhibition tells the story of the dock from its building on the River Ribble as part of the Preston Improvement Act of 1880 to its demise in the 1970’s. Trade was lost to larger ports like Liverpool and Bristol which could accommodate much larger container ships. The dock closed in 1979 with the last ship sailing from Preston in 1987.

There is a model of the HMS Sans Pareil on display: a battleship in the British Royal Navy. The ship finished its life in Preston when it was sold for scrap to a shipbreakers based at the dock.

A ‘Priest Town’ & Religious Centre

Preston is known for having the most diverse faith community in Lancashire. It has the largest Sikh community, the second largest Muslim community and the largest Gujurat Hindu centre in the North of England. It also remained a strongly catholic area after the Church of England was established. Records from 1767 show that 15% of families in Preston were catholic compared to 1% across England as a whole. Well no wonder I came across so many catholic churches in my exploration of Preston.

You can see the spire of St Walburge’s Catholic Church from the window next to the information panel. It is here that I learnt of the tallest church in England that isn’t a cathedral. I immediately wanted to head to St Walburge’s and look up at that spire.

Preston Carnival

Another experience I want to embrace in Preston is the carnival. A large number of people from different Caribbean countries came to live in Preston following the law changes of 1948 which encouraged people from commonwealth countries to settle in Britain. They brought with them the tradition of carnival celebrations which initially were just carried out in homes. In the 1970’s Preston fully embraced carnival by incorporating it into the Guild celebrations. Costume parades and dances were carried out in the streets. It became an annual celebration which has grown over the years, now attracting people from all backgrounds and from all over Britain. It is a vibrant festival that I would love to see some time in the future!

Archaeology

A large area of the Discover Preston exhibition is given over to archaeology and makes for fascinating reading. It turns out that the construction of the Preston Dock in the 1880’s unearthed 6000 years of history, literally! A staggering amount of animal and human remains were discovered as well as items such as canoes and spearheads. It formed the largest collection of its kind in Britain and many pieces are on display at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery.

The fabulous and most importantly complete elk skeleton that dominates this end of the gallery is not one of the Docks finds though. He was discovered in 1970 under a bungalow that was being demolished. You can read all about the elk’s story on the information panels as well as what the following full scale dig revealed not just about the elk, but about environmental conditions at the time he died 13,500 years ago.

The Bleasdale Circle

Most intriguing to me in this area of the Discover Preston exhibition is the discovery of the Bleasdale Circle. It was discovered in 1898 and is not a typical stone circle by any means. Instead the Bleasdale circle was an 11m circular ditch lined with wood and featuring upright timber posts. In preservation attempts, the rotten timbers were replaced with concrete posts in the 1930’s and are the ‘stones’ that can be seen today. The function of the circle is a hotly debated topic and although shrouded in mystery, the general consensus is that it was a Bronze Age burial site. I would definitely love to scout this one out for myself.

There are many more of Preston’s achievements celebrated in the Discover Preston gallery including the town’s war effort and the area’s sporting achievements.

The Art Gallery at The Harris

Moving up to the second floor of the Harris Museum brings you to the main art gallery and costume gallery. The latter is currently showing a fashion exhibition called Preston Street Style.

Fine Art Collection at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery

There are art works all around the 2^nd floor balcony and I particularly like the Preston cityscape oil painting by Charles Cundall from 1955.

The collection contains all sorts of art work including paintings, sculpture, drawings and prints, from the 12^th century up to the present day. Amongst the collection I saw an L.S. Lowry: “Millworkers” and a Lakeland landscape by Alfred William Hunt: “Styhead Pass, Borrowdale”. It was nice to see works by northern artists and/or featuring northern subject matters in a northern city.

There are also a couple of modern sculptures of note. “Her Head” by Dhruva Mistry (1986) immediately commands your attention on entering the first gallery. This is actually a plaster model for a bronze sculpture he did that draws on the traditions of Indian and Ancient Egyptian sculpture.

In the second gallery, the abstract sculpture “Spaghetti alle Vongole Twice” by Bruce McLean (1994) dominates the space. The information panel next to the art work proves handy as it explains what you’re actually looking at. The metal ribbons and orange disc turn out to be portraying two faces and two hands which I only understood after reading that!

Make sure you find the glass work in here by Ana Rosa Hopkins which remembers the Manchester riots of 2011. The pieces are made from glass collected from broken shop windows. The glass was never cleaned so you can still see the original dust, sand and paint spots collected on the day. This is a remarkable way of preserving the memory of the terrible event.

Preston Street Style at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery

This exhibition demonstrates the creativeness of Preston residents. It features clothing made, worn or sold in Preston from 1900 to present day. There are some really unique designs from local high street and designer fashion labels as well as by students and many outfits were worn at the Preston carnival.

The “Preston Fashion Monster” is a really intriguing piece. It is made out of old clothes from Preston’s charity shops that didn’t sell and was created in the Harris Makerspace by visitors to the gallery. Whether you like it or not, the ‘monster’ celebrates the concept of up-cycling old clothes into something new.

So, would you visit the Harris Museum and Art Gallery?

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to the Harris Museum and Art Gallery and can certainly recommend anyone visiting, particularly if you have an interest in learning about the local area. There is certainly a bit of something for everyone. I found the dedicated local museum fascinating as I learned so much about Preston and the surrounding area. As a result of my visit, I can’t wait to see St Walburge’s Church up close, visit the Preston Docklands and search out the Bleasdale Circle. I know what I’ll be doing on my next trip to Preston!

Oh, and makes sure you pop into the shop on your way out!

Have you visited the Harris Museum? What other quirky facts should I know about Preston? Drop me a line in the comments below and let me know. I’d love to hear from you.

North West England Further Reading

Out and about in North West England – you may like to read some of my other posts on the area…

Architecture in Preston: A Tour of the City Centre

A Fun-filled Day Out at the Cheshire Steam Fair

A Winter’s Walk at Pennington Flash – Greater Manchester

The Great Things You’ll Discover on a Walking Tour in Liverpool

Walking Amongst the Iron Men at Crosby Beach, Merseyside

Discover The Halo Panopticon Sculpture in Lancashire

If you’ve enjoyed reading this, please subscribe to my blog via email over on my profile page or through Bloglovin’. Then head on over to Facebook, Instagram or Twitter to keep up with all my travel related news. Hope to see you there.

PIN IT!