Review: Gawthorpe Hall!

A great place to visit if you are interested in heritage and textiles! I enjoyed gaining knowledge about the Shuttleworth family and seeing all the different textiles that were on display! 

The building is an amazing view! it looks very grand but also very home like. The staff and guides are excellent because they were all very welcoming and gave me a lot of interesting information within the rooms I walked into. The first room I stepped into was the great hall, within this room I especially liked the wallpaper and ceiling. The wallpaper is red with gothic style decorations. This room also includes 2 pieces of textiles work which was a chair and a wooden display that both have embroidery on them, from what the guide told me, I believe that these were the first pieces to be acquired. The next room I walked into was very decorational and I loved the blue and pink chandelier, the ceiling and the set of drawers. I found it very interesting to understand what each piece of furniture was and I even found out that one of the Bronte sisters, Charlotte Bronte, had sat in one of the green sofas and that is why only was is reupholstered. 

After seeing the 2 rooms I have mentioned above, I then went to go and see the textiles exhibition. I was very fascinated by all the different patterns and different fabrics, such as lace, as I could see that it must of taken a lot of hard work to create such pieces of clothing. The middle room of the collection had some lovely pieces such as a white dress and a little red jacket/blazer decorated with embroidered flowers, I loved both of these pieces. The last room of the exhibition was all about reusing and recycling materials, I especially loved the black blazer with the peacock, bee & honeycomb as well as a butterfly and leaves embroidered on. I enjoyed seeing the case with some pieces in as these pieces were very nature based. I enjoyed being able to see the different sewing techniques within the artworks. 

I then walked into a small room with some paintings in, these were paintings of Gawthorpe Hall and some of the rooms within the hall, these paintings were absolutely amazing to look at as they looked so realistic. I then explored the nurseries area, this was fascinating because I got an insight to who the Kay Shuttleworth children were and I found out from an information board that the room used to be 3 rooms which was interesting to imagine. I then went to go and see the long gallery, I was very interested to see that this room had textured wallpaper and a fancy ceiling that was originally made in 1603. I loved the fireplace in this room as it had tiles within it that had pictures of ships and leaves. the leaves reminded me of peacock feathers. The guide in the long gallery kindly showed us what an original toilet looked like back when the Shuttleworth family lived there. Lastly, I saw the bedroom and guest bedroom, the beds in these rooms were very decorative and the four poster bed within the guest room had an embroidered duvet and curtain which must have took Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth years to create and complete! 

The last thing I would like to talk about is the gift shop. I liked the gift shop because of how small it was as it showed that Gawthorpe Hall was the main attraction. Within the gift shop there were some rulers that were interesting because they had timelines on them such as William Shakespeare's history of plays that he wrote. I loved that the gift shop had a lot of locally made items. 

I visited Gawthorpe Hall on Sunday 15th May 2022.

Entry prices are £6 for adults, £4 for concessions and free for children.

They are open on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 12pm till 5pm.

Gawthorpe Hall can be found in Padiham near Burnley. The Address: Burnley Rd, Padiham, Burnley  BB2 8UA.

Author

Holly Craig

Holly Craig Local Reviewer

I am 19 years old, I study animals but I am very much interested in the arts. My hobbies include reading and swimming.

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2 Comments

  • Judy McFall

    On 7 June 2022, 11:38 Judy McFall commented:

    This sounds really interesting Holly, especially finding connections to the Bronte sessiters following your theatre trip review! How did the exhibitions make you feel? Did it immerse you into the past and help imagine what life was like?

  • Holly Craig

    On 9 June 2022, 07:50 Holly Craig Voice Reviewer commented:

    The exhibitions made me feel fascinated by what materials were used. Yes, it did immerse me and made me wonder what the Shuttle worth family must have been like when they lived there.

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