Woodhall Spa Cottage Museum

The Woodhall Spa Cottage Museum (Cottage Museum, Woodall Spa,)[1] is a community museum managed by volunteers, located on Iddesleigh Road, Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire, England. The museum documents the history of Woodhall Spa's development as a 19th-century spa town designed by Richard Adolphus Came.[2]

The Cottage Museum, Woodhall Spa

History

The museum was inaugurated in 1987 and consists of a bungalow constructed of corrugated galvanised iron laid on a timber frame.[3][4] The building was shipped to Woodhall Spa as a flat pack.[5]

The cottage, erected in 1887, was chosen from the models available in the catalogue of Boulton & Paul Ltd, a leading manufacturer of corrugated iron buildings, which where having a bit of a vogue in the era.[3] It is an unusual example of such a cottage that is still standing in well-preserved condition.[3]

The cottage was built by John and Mary Wield, employees of Woodhull Spa.[3] The Wields were in the business of providing rides in Bath chairs drawn by donkeys to carry visitors between the spa's health baths and hotels.[6] John Wield created a photographic record of the then new Victorian spa community at Woodhall Spa. Today, his photographic collection forms the basis of the Woodhall Spa Cottage Museum collection. The bungalow was the home of the Wield family from 1887 to the 1960s.[7]

John Wield's collection of photographs and ephemera was offered in the early 1980s to the community of Woodhall Spa provided it was put on public display. Not long after that, in 1985, John Wield's bungalow came on the market and, in 1986, a trust was formed to set up the Woodhall Spa Cottage Museum.

The local tourist information centre is housed within the museum.[8]

In 2011, the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded a grant of £677,600 to be used to refurbish the building, update the exhibits, and fund programs.[6] The project reflected the need to remove several small, wooden outbuildings (an old donkey stable, workshop and photography studio) that had been damaged by arson.[9]

References
  1. Lincolnshire Tourism, www.visitlincolnshire.com - accessed 18.11.2010.
  2. "Hidden treasures are plentiful in charming Spa". Lincolnshire Echo. 20 October 2011. ProQuest 899263506.
  3. Mornement, Adam; Holloway, Simon (2007). Corrugated Iron: Building on the Frontier. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 50. ISBN 9780393732405. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  4. Heritage Lottery Fund, www.hlf.org.uk -accessed 18.11.2010.
  5. http://www.woodhallspa.org/wp/31-2/heritage/cottage-museum
  6. "Delight at the Museum". Grimsby Telegraph, Louth edition. 14 December 2011. ProQuest 910911167.
  7. Museum Website, www.woodhallspa-museum.co.uk -accessed 18.11.2010.
  8. East Lindsey District Council, www.e-lindsey.gov.uk -accessed 18.11.2010.
  9. "Museum's damaged buildings removed". Grimsby Telegraph. 1 February 2012. ProQuest 919109189.

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