Museum of Bath at Work
 | |
  Location within Somerset and the United Kingdom | |
| Established | 1978 |
|---|---|
| Location | Bath, Somerset |
| Coordinates | 51°23′20″N 2°21′46″W / 51.3889°N 2.3629°W |
| Director | Stuart Burroughs |
| Website | Museum web site |
The Museum of Bath at Work is a local history museum in Bath, Somerset, England.
The museum was established in 1978 as the Bath Industrial Heritage Trust. Its original collection consisted of a reconstruction of the nineteenth century engineering and mineral water business of Jonathan Burdett Bowler, founded in 1872.[1] When the Bowler firm closed in 1969 its contents were bought by a local businessman with the express intention of founding a museum.[2] Photographs taken of the original business were used to carefully reconstruct the shop, workshops, offices and bottling plant.[3][4] Over 10,000 bottles and many thousands of documents were also saved.
Today, the museum seeks to present the commercial development of Bath over a 2000-year period. In addition to the Bowler collection, other reconstructions include a cabinet maker's workshop and a Bath Stone quarry face complete with crane and tools. In 1999 a rare 1914 Horstmann car was acquired, and, in 2003, a comprehensive exhibition on Bath's development, 'Bath at Work : 2000 Years of Earning a Living' opened. A local history display in the Hudson Gallery opened in 2007 and features an ever changing display of photographs. In 2007 the museum acquired a very rare Griffin six-stroke gas engine, that had been in storage in Yeovil, Somerset, England, after having been moved from London in 2001.[5] It was built in 1885 and for some years was in the Birmingham Museum of Science and Technology.[6] It is one of only two known examples, the other being in the Anson Engine Museum.
The museum building itself, Camden Works, was originally built in 1777 as a court for the indoor game of real tennis.[7]
References
- ^ Andrews, Ken (1998). Mr Bowler of Bath. Bristol. pp. 10, 19. ISBN 0 9534201 0 8.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Andrews. Bowler. p. 10.
- ^ "Museum of Bath at Work". 24-hour museum. Retrieved 28 October 2007.
- ^ Andrews. Bowler. pp. 10, 63–80.
- ^ "Only surviving Griffin engine returns home to Bath museum". Culture24.org.uk. 15 April 2007. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
- ^ Edgington, David, ed. (May 1980). "Stationary Engines at the Birmingham Museum of Science and Industry". The Stationary Engine (75). Internal Fire – Museum of Power: 5.
- ^ Andrews. Bowler. p. 10.