Enjoying retirement
In The Red Rose County
A small art gallery 15 minutes away from us on the edge of Accrington. The best overview is in their own teaching resource The house itself is ‘an Edwardian Tudor-style house in its own park with lovely views across the surrounding hills. It has an oak-panelled entrance hall and an Arts and Crafts staircase and delightful wood and plaster decorations adorn the main reception rooms. From 1909 to 1920, it was the home of cotton manufacturer William Haworth and his sister Anne; it was then bequeathed to the people of Accrington and has been a public art gallery ever since. The Haworth Art Gallery houses the largest public collection of Tiffany glass ion Europe. It was given to the people of Accrington by Joseph Briggs who in 1891, aged only 17, left Accrington to seek his fortune in America. He worked with Tiffany in New York in various jobs all his working life and sent his collection back to his home town in 1933. The collection is displayed over four rooms and includes some of the finest glass Tiffany ever produced.’ We visited on an absolutely awful day teeming with rain and with a wedding taking place inside the hall which precluded us visiting some parts and prevented us visiting the tea room which I had particularly wanted to see. The staff were very helpful indeed in giving us a peek at some of the 'off' areas. What we found was that the inside was very 'museum like' and stripped of most of its character as a proud Arts and Crafts house. For goodness sake with a bit of imagination some of it could surely be refitted with appropriate funiture and made to feel what it was. There were some really good local paintings but in truth just a handful all told, so again for an 'art gallery' this is almost inexcusable. There was an impressive display of the 'Accrington Pals' but no explanation. and a handful of interesting resources...... A lot is made of the internationally important Tiffany Glass collection, but we found it rather dull although with some stand-out pieces.... We'll visit again when we can have tea visit the gardens and see how we feel second-time round!
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August 2023
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