There are names that go ,with the history of preston , and one of the finest families were the Harris,s, and its a testament , that there name is still looked on and respected even today , they left us wonderful monuments , none bigger than the harris free library and museum , , granted some of there stock which they have left , has fallen into private hands , with the harris orphanage and the institute , both subject , of strong discussion , and its felt by many people that the council , had no right to let these properties , go to private ownership , they were left for the people of preston , , which I suppose tells us all we need to know about the heritage of this towns councils , past and present ...... In the 19th century, after it became legal to raise money for libraries by local taxation, a Public Library boom hit the United Kingdom. The town of Preston wanted a grand museum and library for its inhabitants. Since 1850, locals had held fund-raising events to get enough money to build a museum and public library. In 1877, a Preston lawyer called Edmund Robert Harris finally made the dream of Preston into a reality. He left instructions in his will that a sum of £300,000 be used to establish a trust that would provide funds to support the creation of several institutions in Preston including a library, museum and art gallery. The trust would work with Preston Corporation. In 1879, the first Preston lending library was set up in the Town Hall basement, while a public museum was set up on Cross Street, opening 1st May 1880. The popularity of this made the council decide to make a purpose built building to house the Public Library and Museum. Building work officially started on the museum in 1882 during the Preston Guild and it officially opened in 1893. The Harris collections cover fine art, decorative art, costume, textiles and history including important collections on archaeology and local history. The museum has a permanent history gallery called Discover Preston which covers Prestons history but also includes a Discovery Room featuring the wider collections. Highlights of the Discovery Room include a display of the impressively complete skeleton discovered in 1970, of the 13,500 year-old Poulton Elk, a skeleton of an Ice Age elk with two embedded man-made barbed points, the earliest relic of human occupation of Lancashire. The fine art collection includes over 800 oil paintings featuring work by Richard Ansdell, George Frederick Watts, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Stanley Spencer, Lucian Freud, Ivon Hitchens and Graham Sutherland as well as local artists like Reginald Aspinall (1858–1921). The decorative art collection includes important collections of British ceramics and glass, highlights of which include the largest scent bottle collection in the country, and are displayed in the Ceramics and Glass Gallery. In addition there is a varied contemporary art programme of national and international artists, touring shows and in-house exhibitions. A Foucault pendulum hangs in the central foyer, through all the floors, over a butterfly-shaped plate marked with the hours of the day. As a result of the rotation of the Earth, this functions as a decorative and reasonably-accurate clock. Its quite easy on the eye when you stop for a pot of tea , in the museum café The building is also decorated with a number of plaster casts of classical friezes throughout the central atrium and a 19th-century copy of the Baptistery doors from Florence is located on the ground floor. These were part of the original design scheme by the architect James Hibbert. Golden in colour and a wonderous work of art .... This monumental building also houses Preston Citys Public Library, which is run by Lancashire County Council. The Harris library holds important book collections including the Shepherd Collection donated to Preston by Dr Richard Shepherd in 1761, with additions funded by the Shepherd bequest, local studies material, nineteenth-century journals, rare books and art books. Also the Spencer collection of illustrated childrens books and chapbooks And not forgetting the breathe taking Egyptian balcony , , which I ve mentioned before and I do highly recommend a visit .... Image -1 is a blue plaque dedicated to the memory of Edmund harris , which is up on the wall of one of his former homes , on ribblesdale place , at the corner , close to chapel street , this house must have had a wonderful view looking out over avenham park from the rear , , image 3-4 , are the stone gate posts that still remain ,at the bottom of pedders lane , where the entrance to whinfield house , stood another home of Edmund harris , , the carving on the gateposts , is beautiful ,but I am wondering if it was family crest of somekind , as in image - 5 , the same crest exists over the front door of Ashton house , which sits on Ashton park , and was the home of the pedder family .....
Posted on: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 14:09:23 +0000
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