On our way to visit Beaulieu National Motor Museum this morning set me wondering…. what is the most unusual British Museum?
Motor Museums are not unusual really, although they have some unusual motors within. But have you visited the Lawnmower Museum, the Museum of Witchcraft or the Pencil Museum? I guess most of you reading this will answer ‘no’! Did you even know they existed?
Well, there is a Lawnmower Museum in the grounds of the Trerice House, a National Trust property, near Newquay in Cornwall and the British Lawnmower Museum is in Southport. Two museums dedicated to lawnmowers…. The lawnmower was invented by Edwin Beard Budding in 1830. He was working in a textile mill in Stroud, Gloucester, where he designed a machine originally to trim the knap off the cloth, destined for Guardsmen’s uniforms. His revolutionary idea was to use it to cut grass!
Founded in 1951, the Museum of Witchcraft (Boscastle, Cornwall) claims to be the world’s largest collection dedicated to witchcraft. Who would dare argue with them?
As well as the Colman’s Mustard Shop and Museum in Norfolk and the Dog Collar Museum at Leeds Castle in Maidstone, there is also a Pencil Museum. Located in an area where graphite was first mined for pencils, the first pencil factory was built in 1832 and the museum is located in Keswick, Cumberland, providing a journey through the history of pencils and pencil making.
