Clifton Park museum is located on the fringe of Rotherham town centre. The museum is housed in Clifton House, a Grade 11 listed building dating from 1793. This house was designed by John Carr, a prominent architect of that time and it was the family home of the Walker family. The original occupier was Joshua Walker and his wife. Joshua's father had made his fortune in the local steel industry. Following Joshua's death this house was passed through various generations of his family and remained in their possession for almost 200 years.
Clifton House stood in 70 acres of grounds and the majority of this land came into the ownership of Rotherham Borough Council in 1891, who opened up this area as a public recreation area called Clifton Park. Shortly after this date the Council also acquired the house and in 1893 they opened this house as a museum.
This museum closed in December 2002 and reopened in January 2005 following a £3 million (4.5 million Euro) refurbishment that was partly funded by National LotteryHeritage
money.
The majority of the items within this museum that form the bulk of the exhibitions are items donated by the Walker family.
From the outside the building looks like a grand country house, built in the Palladian style that was popular at the time. This type of architecture draws on both Greek and Roman influences.
The museum occupies the entire building and is on two floors. The main entrance to the museum is on the side of the building and there is an information desk located just inside the doorway. Entry into the museum is free but there is often security here that will carry out random security checks, so if it is busy as it was when I visited here a few weeks ago you should be prepared to queue for a few minutes before being allowed inside.
Once inside there are various different rooms, each with a different theme. On the lower level there is a large open plan foyer area in the middle of the building that was once the courtyard to the house, but this now has a roof over it. From here there is a labyrinth of different corridors that lead into different rooms. There are also toilets, including ones equipped for disabled access and with baby changing facilities in this area as well as a gift shop and cafe.
The main displays on the lower floor relate to the history of Rotherham through the ages. There is a section about the geology and geography of this area and its earliest occupation by man. This area also includes information about some of the animals that would have roamed this region. There are cabinets here that contain bones from animals found locally that have long been extinct, including wolves and bears.
Moving on from the exhibitions regarding the earliest times there are further displays that cover the Roman occupation of the town and onwards through to Rotherham during the middle ages. Amongst the Roman exhibitions there are displays of locally found Roman pottery and other artefacts as well as a hoard of Roman coins that were excavated from the outskirts of the town a few years ago.
The other half of the floor space on the lower level is where we find recreated rooms from the days of the Walker family and the main three rooms here are the library, the kitchens and the dining room. The dining room features a huge table that is set with an ornate original dinner service. Underneath each of the larger dinner plates there is a placard that contains a description of a dish that could have been on the menu. The kitchens feature the original wood fuelled ovens.
The upper levels of the building are accessed via a set of stairs, but these have a stair lift attached to them for disabled visitors. There are no lifts within the building. The upper rooms contain further examples of life in the times of the Walker family. Here we find the bedrooms, the dressing rooms and the children's play areas. Again, these areas contain original items of clothing and toys etc.
Also located on the upper floor, and somewhat oddly out of place is an exhibition featuring Rotherham during the Second World War. There is a replica of an air raid shelter complete with tin hats and audio tapes that contain spoken accounts of the days spent in such shelters.
The museum is open at the following times:
Monday to Thursday, and Saturday - 10am to 5pm Sunday - 1.30pm to 4.30pm It is closed on Fridays and during Christmas and the New Year
The address is as below:
Clifton Park Museum Clifton Lane Rotherham Rotherham South Yorkshire S65 2AA
I really enjoyed my visit to the Clifton Park museum and found it to be a very interesting insight into how the rich families of the 18th and 19th centuries lived. It was also an interesting history lesson about the town of Rotherham itself as well.
I also found it incredible to think that what I have always known as Clifton Park was actually once someone's private garden. In fact the original gardens to the house were considerably larger than the present day park since the stables and flower gardens are now beneath the buildings of the town centre and the adjacent housing estates.
I think it's superb that you can visit places like this and not have to pay hefty entry fees....especially if taking children along for a bit of culture! x
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