The Mapping Museum research project was created to look at the increase in the number of museums in the UK. As part of this project, Eileen Burgess and Joanna Moody were interviewed about the Nidderdale Museum.

Explore more about the Mapping Museum project here and read Burgess and Moody's interview below:

Interview summary

Name of person(s) being interviewed: Eileen Burgess and Joanna Moody

Location of interview: Nidderdale Museum

Date of Recording: 14 December 2018

Recording Length: 01:01:29

Name of interviewer: Dr Toby Butler

Description: The Nidderdale Museum in the Yorkshire Dales is concerned with life in the Nidderdale Valley and includes a variety of interiors featuring objects donated or rescued from local buildings including a kitchen, pub "snug", school, Victorian parlour, dairy, shoemaker’s shop, magistrates’ court and even a walk-through reconstruction of a mineral mine-shaft.

Summary of main points in interview: Eileen Burgess is a co-founder and retired secretary of Nidderdale Museum Society. Current secretary Joanna Moody also contributes to the interview. Burgess grew up in Wharfedale and taught at a local school. She was involved in a WEA local history class which produced "A History of Nidderdale". She felt that a more concrete way of showcasing local history was required, and at the time farms were being sold up and shops changing use. Harrogate Council gave them the building.

Burgess discusses some of the big local changes they wanted to explore: piped water came to some villages as late as 1962; mining, mills and quarries closed over the decades; laundries and cobblers closed; communities of people working in local industry were replaced by commuters; walking long distances became less common. She describes how each Dale has its own variation in culture and dialect.

They learned from other museums about procedures for accepting objects. Burgess also felt the museum was becoming too object-focused and revised the galleries to reflect the story of development and changing life in the Dale. She discusses the relationship with the Council, registration, and accreditation. Moody explains how they have struggled to cope with re-accreditation paperwork. They discuss opening hours, visitor numbers and decline in group and school visits. Burgess discusses the fraught process of getting brown signs installed on the roads.

TRANSCRIPT ONLY; NO AUDIO FILE PROVIDED