Blog Post
A Cargo Of Curiosities
- By Chris Salt
- •
- 17 May, 2016
- •
It’s probably nearly two years – possibly even longer – since Karen and I first mooted doing a project in the house where I have lived with my family for the last 15 years. My two daughters have grown up here and have now both left for pastures new. The house holds many lovely memories for us and before we leave it to another family to cherish its nooks and crannies we wanted to find a way to open up the Hall, and its history, to our friends and neighbours and the wider community of Middleton and Alkrington; not just to admire its Georgian proportions and shiver at the size of the gas bills but to learn, as we have learned, about its history and in particular about the amazing museum of curiosities that these rooms once housed.
Sir Ashton Lever grew up here, in the 18th Century, enthralled by the natural world and its possibilities. He had a much admired aviary here but for some reason - we like to think it was a broken heart over a lost love - he turned his attention to collecting dead things, the inanimate, the weird but wonderful. Amongst his first prized specimens were a collection of shells and a dead bird with a young sparrow (I think) nesting within its rotting carcass. These were the inspiration for what was to become the most famous museum in the country – housed first in Alkrington Hall and then Leicester Square in London as the collection outgrew its Middleton home. Stuffed animals, birds, pressed flora, fossils and exotica from newly discovered lands – Captain Cook himself donated more than one ‘Cargo of Curiosities’ to the amateur enthusiast – expanded the collection and emptied the pockets of Ashton Lever until, he lost it all.
How and why the collection was lost, dispersed and what happened to Lever will be the subject of another blog, and will no doubt form part of the final fruits of this project. But it is this story that has in turns charmed and intrigued us during our time here that we want to now share. And it is this that has resulted in the project that finally, thanks to a lot of hard work from friends and partners, and financial support from the Arts Council and Middleton Township, begins today.
Between now and November we will build, with your help, another collection – just as varied, curious and inspiring as the original Leverian Museum. We will exhibit it here – in Alkrington Hall East – and everyone will be welcome to take part, visit, donate, question, enjoy and, we hope, be enlightened and entertained.
Watch this space.
Sir Ashton Lever grew up here, in the 18th Century, enthralled by the natural world and its possibilities. He had a much admired aviary here but for some reason - we like to think it was a broken heart over a lost love - he turned his attention to collecting dead things, the inanimate, the weird but wonderful. Amongst his first prized specimens were a collection of shells and a dead bird with a young sparrow (I think) nesting within its rotting carcass. These were the inspiration for what was to become the most famous museum in the country – housed first in Alkrington Hall and then Leicester Square in London as the collection outgrew its Middleton home. Stuffed animals, birds, pressed flora, fossils and exotica from newly discovered lands – Captain Cook himself donated more than one ‘Cargo of Curiosities’ to the amateur enthusiast – expanded the collection and emptied the pockets of Ashton Lever until, he lost it all.
How and why the collection was lost, dispersed and what happened to Lever will be the subject of another blog, and will no doubt form part of the final fruits of this project. But it is this story that has in turns charmed and intrigued us during our time here that we want to now share. And it is this that has resulted in the project that finally, thanks to a lot of hard work from friends and partners, and financial support from the Arts Council and Middleton Township, begins today.
Between now and November we will build, with your help, another collection – just as varied, curious and inspiring as the original Leverian Museum. We will exhibit it here – in Alkrington Hall East – and everyone will be welcome to take part, visit, donate, question, enjoy and, we hope, be enlightened and entertained.
Watch this space.