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A historic Tudor home situated in the heart of the Peak District, The Old House Museum is a must-see attraction. After roughly 500 years of constant occupation, the mansion was spared from demolition within the 1950s by a group of volunteers. It is currently home to a wide collection of objects that tell the storey of the Peak District and the surrounding area, among other things.
Wonder what stories these walls may have to tell? Originally constructed as a tax collector’s cottage during Henry VIII’s reign, the house was later extended and transformed into a gentleman’s residence throughout the Elizabethan period, complete with garderobes and other amenities (Tudor toilet). None besides Richard Arkwright, who’d already constructed his third cotton mill in Bakewell at Lumford at the time of the Industrial Revolution, was responsible for converting the building into mill employees’ homes. Any of these eras are portrayed in the home, which means there are plenty of features for all architectural enthusiasts to appreciate.
The collections are just as diverse as the building’s design. In every nook and crevice of the museum, there is something for everyone, from Tudor period relics embedded inside the walls from Macedonian ceremonial swords, ceramics, textiles and costumes, toys and cameras, among other things. It is possible to create a storey about each and every one of the antiques, that have been contributed by local inhabitants over the course of the preceding sixty years, and how they are connected to this specific region of Derbyshire. These narratives are delivered through the use of interactive QR codes. A smartphone and a pair of earphones are all that are required.
