There are a lot of new history galleries around these days: Dundee, Coventry, Bolton, Southampton, not to mention the Museum of Liverpool.
All of these have been supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, and they all, in different ways, aim to convey a sense of place, to explain what makes an area special.
Britain is an old country, which means it’s not that hard to discover stories and shape them into a narrative that will explain the history of place to local people and visitors. Add the magic ingredient of authentic objects and you should have a winner.
But telling such a story can lead to curator’s constructing similar narratives. You know the sort of thing: early settlements, market town, the rise of industry and civic amenities, entertainment, industrial decline, new communities and a nod to the present and the future.
So, on my way to Preston I wonder what is in store at Discover Preston at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery. First stop is a coffee in the belly of this monument to Victorian values.
As I’m served by lovely staff, I look up to the roof and read the words on the frieze – Painting, Literature, Sculpture, Science: take that English Baccalaureate!
I pick up a leaflet for the gallery, which has an elk skeleton for a logo. Why? It tells me that the gallery is split into four zones: What makes Preston Special; Preston at the Crossroads; A Social and Commercial Hub; and the Discovery Room.
Local pride
The curators at the Harris have taken the interesting step of refining what could have been many themes into three. The first is important as it’s what you want to know about the town as a visitor or as a local.
The other two have to then amplify that message. Is that an intelligent move? It could be simplistic and it could be worthy but dull.
The gallery is high, with classical proportions and a polished wood floor and white walls. I turn left to face What Makes Preston Special. It’s a modular display based on a wooden framework with cases facing outwards and inwards.
It concentrates on famous Prestonians, including the 18th-century engineer and inventor Richard Arkwright and the MP Henry Hunt, a pioneer of working class radicalism in the early 19th century.
Alongside them are less well known pioneers such as Isaac Simpson, the scientific priest who first lit Preston with gas as early as 1816, and the reforming teetotaller Joseph Livesey.
Surrounding the module are displays on the famous Preston Guilds procession. There is archive film footage below a splendid Butchers’ Association banner.
Nearby is a section on Preston North End, which explains why the football club was successful in the late-19th century. (They imported professionals and helped establish the modern Football Association.) The label frankly admits that they “haven’t quite managed to reach the top again”.
The text is brief and well written throughout and the objects drive the narrative. The Harris has first-rate collections and the design is clear and crisp, with a restrained use of colour.
It also incorporates works from the art collections, including a portrait of the reformed boozer Thomas Swindlehurst and the Joseph Wright of Derby portrait of Arkwright.
Fabric history
The second section, Social and Commercial Hub, is dominated by a huge model of the Horrockses factory made for a royal visit in 1913. Full of chimneys, it is reminder that Preston became a cotton town in the 19th century.
The Horrocks brothers built an Arkwright style spinning mill in 1791 and went on to become the UK’s largest cotton manufacturer. There are excellent supporting displays of shirts and dresses as well as still and moving images.
These are flanked by a display on Courtaulds, a company that relocated to Preston in 1957 and became a major employer and producer of Rayon and Duracol until closing in 1980.
Round the corner are sections on the Preston carnival, the fabulous covered market and cricket, including local boy Freddie Flintoff.
There is also a fascinating display on Will Onda, a local film pioneer, and the Preston Park outrage of 1913 when local suffragettes defaced the statue of the Earl of Derby. Onda filmed disgruntled workmen cleaning it up.
Preston at the Crossroads looks at how the position of the town influenced some of the events that took place here, from early settlement, the burying of Viking silver, the battle of Preston in 1648 and the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745. It also explains the development of the town as an inland port in the 1880s.
This thematic approach has required some careful editing. For example, there is no Preston at War section but instead a display on the Preston Station Free Buffet. Preston station was a changing station for troops and around 15 million cups of free tea and coffee were served to troops in special mugs.
Curatorial gaps
The Discovery Room is dominated by that Elk skeleton, discovered in 1970 alongside the bone spears that killed it. The walls have displays on the Greeks, Egyptians, toys and numismatics, which surround tables, drawers and activity areas.
I’m sure it’s a useful space to have but it did feel like a grab-bag of those parts of the collections that didn’t quite fit but deserved an outing. One gripe – if you’re spending this much on a gallery, buy proper Aalto stools and not cheap imitations.
Overall, Discover Preston delivers. It’s clear that the curators have done some deep thinking about what constitutes a local history gallery and have successfully produced an elegant experience that presents a holistic survey that avoids ghettoising and aims to integrate the experience of all Prestonians into the story. There is even a failed bank from the 1860s.
But all curation is selection and there are gaps. There should have been something on the living conditions of the 19th century, the role of British Aerospace and BAE Systems and the impact of the declining textile industry.
The Discovery Room could have taken more risks and have an area for discussion about contemporary issues. The future of Building Design Partnership’s magnificent 1960s bus station would be a start.
The gallery is an impressive addition to a Victorian vision where you can also see 20th-century greats such as Stanley Spencer and William Roberts alongside contemporary works, all for free in a central building that houses the library and local studies. Preston has lots to discover and be proud of.
Mark Suggitt is the director of Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site
All of these have been supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, and they all, in different ways, aim to convey a sense of place, to explain what makes an area special.
Britain is an old country, which means it’s not that hard to discover stories and shape them into a narrative that will explain the history of place to local people and visitors. Add the magic ingredient of authentic objects and you should have a winner.
But telling such a story can lead to curator’s constructing similar narratives. You know the sort of thing: early settlements, market town, the rise of industry and civic amenities, entertainment, industrial decline, new communities and a nod to the present and the future.
So, on my way to Preston I wonder what is in store at Discover Preston at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery. First stop is a coffee in the belly of this monument to Victorian values.
As I’m served by lovely staff, I look up to the roof and read the words on the frieze – Painting, Literature, Sculpture, Science: take that English Baccalaureate!
I pick up a leaflet for the gallery, which has an elk skeleton for a logo. Why? It tells me that the gallery is split into four zones: What makes Preston Special; Preston at the Crossroads; A Social and Commercial Hub; and the Discovery Room.
Local pride
The curators at the Harris have taken the interesting step of refining what could have been many themes into three. The first is important as it’s what you want to know about the town as a visitor or as a local.
The other two have to then amplify that message. Is that an intelligent move? It could be simplistic and it could be worthy but dull.
The gallery is high, with classical proportions and a polished wood floor and white walls. I turn left to face What Makes Preston Special. It’s a modular display based on a wooden framework with cases facing outwards and inwards.
It concentrates on famous Prestonians, including the 18th-century engineer and inventor Richard Arkwright and the MP Henry Hunt, a pioneer of working class radicalism in the early 19th century.
Alongside them are less well known pioneers such as Isaac Simpson, the scientific priest who first lit Preston with gas as early as 1816, and the reforming teetotaller Joseph Livesey.
Surrounding the module are displays on the famous Preston Guilds procession. There is archive film footage below a splendid Butchers’ Association banner.
Nearby is a section on Preston North End, which explains why the football club was successful in the late-19th century. (They imported professionals and helped establish the modern Football Association.) The label frankly admits that they “haven’t quite managed to reach the top again”.
The text is brief and well written throughout and the objects drive the narrative. The Harris has first-rate collections and the design is clear and crisp, with a restrained use of colour.
It also incorporates works from the art collections, including a portrait of the reformed boozer Thomas Swindlehurst and the Joseph Wright of Derby portrait of Arkwright.
Fabric history
The second section, Social and Commercial Hub, is dominated by a huge model of the Horrockses factory made for a royal visit in 1913. Full of chimneys, it is reminder that Preston became a cotton town in the 19th century.
The Horrocks brothers built an Arkwright style spinning mill in 1791 and went on to become the UK’s largest cotton manufacturer. There are excellent supporting displays of shirts and dresses as well as still and moving images.
These are flanked by a display on Courtaulds, a company that relocated to Preston in 1957 and became a major employer and producer of Rayon and Duracol until closing in 1980.
Round the corner are sections on the Preston carnival, the fabulous covered market and cricket, including local boy Freddie Flintoff.
There is also a fascinating display on Will Onda, a local film pioneer, and the Preston Park outrage of 1913 when local suffragettes defaced the statue of the Earl of Derby. Onda filmed disgruntled workmen cleaning it up.
Preston at the Crossroads looks at how the position of the town influenced some of the events that took place here, from early settlement, the burying of Viking silver, the battle of Preston in 1648 and the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745. It also explains the development of the town as an inland port in the 1880s.
This thematic approach has required some careful editing. For example, there is no Preston at War section but instead a display on the Preston Station Free Buffet. Preston station was a changing station for troops and around 15 million cups of free tea and coffee were served to troops in special mugs.
Curatorial gaps
The Discovery Room is dominated by that Elk skeleton, discovered in 1970 alongside the bone spears that killed it. The walls have displays on the Greeks, Egyptians, toys and numismatics, which surround tables, drawers and activity areas.
I’m sure it’s a useful space to have but it did feel like a grab-bag of those parts of the collections that didn’t quite fit but deserved an outing. One gripe – if you’re spending this much on a gallery, buy proper Aalto stools and not cheap imitations.
Overall, Discover Preston delivers. It’s clear that the curators have done some deep thinking about what constitutes a local history gallery and have successfully produced an elegant experience that presents a holistic survey that avoids ghettoising and aims to integrate the experience of all Prestonians into the story. There is even a failed bank from the 1860s.
But all curation is selection and there are gaps. There should have been something on the living conditions of the 19th century, the role of British Aerospace and BAE Systems and the impact of the declining textile industry.
The Discovery Room could have taken more risks and have an area for discussion about contemporary issues. The future of Building Design Partnership’s magnificent 1960s bus station would be a start.
The gallery is an impressive addition to a Victorian vision where you can also see 20th-century greats such as Stanley Spencer and William Roberts alongside contemporary works, all for free in a central building that houses the library and local studies. Preston has lots to discover and be proud of.
Mark Suggitt is the director of Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site
Project data
- Cost £1.8m
- Main funders Heritage Lottery Fund £1.35m; Arts Council England; Friends of the Harris Museum & Art Gallery; Preston City Council; Harris Free Public Library & Museum Endowment Trust; Monument Trust; Foyle Foundation; Garfield Weston Foundation; English Heritage; Duchy of Lancaster Benevolent Fund; Harold & Alice Bridges Charity; Preston Historical Society; private donors
- Exhibition design Campbell & Co
- Fit-out contractor Elmwood (Glasgow)
- Architect Buttress Fuller Alsop Williams
- Project management Turner & Townsend
- Building contractor Conlon Construction
- Graphics production and interactives Leach Colour
- AV and multimedia Heritage Interactive
