Celebrating the arrival of the World Cruise Ship at Whitehaven, The Beacon and Whitehaven Tourist Information are offering special Whitehaven Harbour Trails.

 

Whether you are a visitor from the cruise ship or are local to the area, these trails offer you the perfect opportunity to learn more about the rich history of this beautiful Georgian Harbour.

 

The cost is just £5. Admission to The Beacon museum is also included in the price

 

Tickets available from The Beacon (01946 592302) or Whitehaven Tourist Information Centre (01946 598914).

“Cowern’s Whitehaven-

Whitehaven In Pen, Ink & Pencil”

By Raymond T. Cowern (1913 – 1986)

 

 

As part of the Whitehaven festival celebrations, The Beacon now has a new exhibition in its museum gallery. This collection of Raymond Cowern’s work depicts Whitehaven town and harbour between 1968 and 1986.

 

Cowern sketched Whitehaven extensively from the houses and businesses in the town to the harbour and its boats. Originating from Birmingham, he had a fondness for drawing Whitehaven's distinct architecture. Cowern attended Birmingham Central School of Art and The Royal College of Art’s School of Engraving.  He has exhibited at the Royal Academy and was also a member of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolour.

 

Cowern was the Dean of Art and Design at Brighton Polytechnic before his retirement in 1976. He eventually moved to Whitehaven upon his retirement where he was artistic advisor to the Copeland Collection of contemporary local art, now held at The Beacon. Cowern was well known to many in Whitehaven as a result of this role.

 

In 2005 The Beacon was presented with over 350 of Cowern’s pen, ink and pencil sketches of scenes around the town by his wife, Margaret. The full collection includes both framed and unframed works. This exhibition shows the framed works from this collection.

 

The exhibition is open Tuesday to Sunday and school and bank holiday Mondays from 10am to 4.30pm and will be on display throughout the summer. As the Beacon Gallery is part of the main exhibition area, standard museum admission price applies, with last admission at 3:45pm.

You can now view our footage from the glittering Cumbria Tourism Awards ceremony held at Rheged in May.  Follow this link http://tinyurl.com/2444rah

We are thrilled to announce our double success at the Cumbria Tourism Awards Ceremony last night (Tues May 11th).

 

The Beacon was nominated for two awards. Our Learning Officer Alan Gillon was nominated for The Sheila Hensman Award For Outstanding Customer Service and the museum itself was nominated for the Access For All Tourism Award. We won both of those categories. Both of our awards are now proudly displayed in The Beacon reception area.

 

The whole event was filmed by the new Lakes TV company and will be shown on Sky Channel 203 every night for a week commencing Thursday 20th May at 7.30pm.

 

As a result of this great success, we are now eligible for and working towards the North West region awards to be held this autumn, and success there could lead to a nomination for the Visit England awards next April.

 

 

We are delighted to have recently received a very special object for display in the museum. The new object is a Toddy or Sauce Ladle, dated 1798-99, which has kindly been loaned to the museum by Graham Brown for an initial period of 5 years.

 

Created by Francis Salomon, father to the famous marine artist Robert Salmon, this object is displayed in the maritime decorative arts case opposite some of the Robert Salmon paintings on display on the museum's third floor. A toddy ladle is a type of spoon used in Scotland for a ‘wee dram’ of spirits. This ladle could also be used for sauces. The spoon hints towards a maritime theme with the shell pattern and rope designs on the handle.

 

Gold star for anyone who noticed the name change (no we haven't mispelt it). Robert changed his name from Salomon to Salmon when he moved to Liverpool from Whitehaven. It is believed that he changed the name to avoid the stigma people had about Jews at that time.

 

For those of you who hold a Beacon VIP ticket, there is no charge to come and see this latest addition to the museum collection.  If you don't have a VIP ticket, simply ask at our reception desk.  A VIP ticket is just £8 and gives you unlimited admissions to the museum for 12 months.

It was recently announced that The Beacon has been nominated for two Cumbria Tourism Awards.

The museum itself has been nominated in the "Access For All Tourism Award" category, which looks at how user-friendly the building and it's exhibitions are to people of all ages and abilities. Our Learning Officer Alan Gillon has also been nominated  for "The Sheila Hensman Award For Outstanding Customer Service"

In 2009, we were finalists in the categories of "Small Visitor Attraction of the Year" and "Unsung Hero".

The next stage in the awards process will be for all nominated businesses to be mystery shopped or interviewed according to their category before a glittering awards ceremony to be held at Rheged on Tuesday 11th May.

The BBCs History of the World website is now live and The Beacon has not one but two objects featured. The Beilby goblet is one of those objects. It was purchased by Whitehaven Museum back in 1985 and has had a notable history. The glass goblet was a commission to enamellist William Beilby to mark the launch of the ‘King George’ slave ship from Whitehaven in 1763. It bears the arms of George III and is signed by Beilby himself. The goblet came to the Whitehaven Museum collection after coming up for auction at Christies London in 1985. The goblet was almost lost to America and was only “saved” after the export license was withheld to allow Whitehaven Museum time to obtain funding to purchase the goblet. Thanks to funding from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, National Art Collections Fund, V&A collections fund, BNFL, Copeland Borough Council and the Friends of Whitehaven Museum as well as an anonymous donor, enough funds were raised and Whitehaven Museum purchased the goblet. After the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in 2002 it was announced that she had made the anonymous donation with the condition that it was to remain anonymous until after her death. This collection of funding allowed the Whitehaven Museum to purchase the goblet so that it could remain in its rightful home of Whitehaven. The goblet was almost lost again in 1994 when thieves stole it from Whitehaven’s Civic Hall, then the home to the Museum, but was recovered in time to go on display in The Beacon when it opened in 1996. The second object to be selected for the website is the eighteenth century painting by Matthias Read, “A Birds Eye View of Whitehaven”. Probably the most famous view of Whitehaven this work gives an amazingly accurate record of the rapidly expanding town. Particularly, it clearly shows the grid iron pattern of streets imposed by Sir John Lowther. Why not have a look at the History of the World website www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld.

Friday 15th January was a momentous day for The Beacon in Whitehaven when for the first time, the museum delivered a video conference to America. Using the magic of video-conferencing technology, the Beacon team were beamed live to a class of fifth grade students in St Louis Virtual Learning Center, Missouri. The Beacon has over 3 years experience in delivering activity sessions across Britain by video conference, but this is the first time that they have had the opportunity to work with a school in the United States. The subject of the video vonference was The Abolition of the British Slave Trade.

This is an interactive session where children get to meet a costumed character from the 19th century, abolitionist George Barton, who explains the transatlantic slave trade and recalls life before and after the Abolition Act in 1807. As part of the session, the children explored the products that were traded, the conditions in which slaves lived both on board ship and in the plantations and helped George Barton to write an abolition speech. The class of 30 ten and eleven year olds were shown both genuine and replica artefacts and documents to demonstrate the role of Whitehaven and Cumbria in the slave trade.

The Video Conference fits into the school’s social studies curriculum and prior to the session, the children had been prepared with background information and activities in the classroom. The schools Technology Integration Specialist, Susan Petroff said “Thank you for helping to arrange a powerful learning opportunity for fifth grade students in St. Louis, Missouri. The videoconference on the abolition of the British slave trade was outstanding! The students were captivated by the character George Barton, and after the videoconference the students continued to discuss their learning for another 30 minutes in the classroom.

We appreciate the excellent way you enhanced our learning” “It’s fantastic that with modern technology The Beacon is able to engage with school children over in America”, said Alan Gillon, the museum’s Learning Officer. “Video Conferencing allows the museum to deliver its sessions to classrooms all over the world letting the children experience Copeland’s rich and diverse past”. The Beacon offers Video Conferences to schools on four subjects; The Abolition of the British Slave Trade, Victorians, World War II Home Front and What Is History? For further information please contact Alan Gillon, Beacon Learning Officer on 01946 592302. Sessions can be booked through Cumbria & Lancashire Education Online at www.cleo.net.uk.