Museum prepares to mark centenary

Bagshaw Museum in Wilton Park, Batley, is celebrating its 100th birthday with a special event on Sunday, October 2.

The first 100 children through the doors when the museum opens at noon will receive a special souvenir.

The museum, created in the former home of Victorian mill owner George Sheard, opened to the public in April 1911 but its official opening was six months later on October 4.

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To mark the centenary of that occasion, there is to be a family celebration with craft activities, competitions, a history trail, stalls and entertainment.

All children completing a Centenary Trail around the museum - with 10 objects (one for each decade) to find - will receive commemorative balloons and badges.

There will also be prizes for the fastest in a timed chopstick challenge, in which children have to use chopsticks to pick up and move a variety of objects, and the furthest flight for a paper plane, which youngsters will make and decorate at the museum.

In addition, children will be able to decorate their own biscuits, an activity being provided by the Friends of Wilton Park group which will also be running a cake stall and a competition to guess the weight of the cake.

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The event, which runs until 4pm, will also feature Asian music, a henna artist, face painting and the chance to decorate a giant (inedible) birthday cake.

On display around the museum will be the Times Gone By in Wilton Park exhibition, a collection of old photographs which has been put together as part of a Heritage Lottery-funded project to celebrate the centenary of Wilton Park and Bagshaw Museum.

Members of the public have contributed photographs to the display and these will be on view for the first time at the Bagshaw birthday bash. The Heritage Lottery Fund awarded £50,000 to the centenary project which is being co-ordinated by Kirklees Council and the Friends of Wilton Park.

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