Erddig

Explore a much-loved home, garden and estate filled with the stories of a family and their servants.

Haden Hill House

Haden Hill House Museum in Cradley Heath is a late Victorian gentleman’s residence furnished in period style, surrounded by 55 acres of award winning parkland. The house also holds a variety of temporary exhibitions throughout the year.

The House was built in 1878 by George Alfred Haden Haden-Best who did not wish to live in the Old Hall next door where he grew up with his sisters, aunt and uncle. Haden Hill House has plenty to entertain younger visitors too and the museum has a lively programme of events and activities for all ages as well as a popular selection of activities for schools.

Haden Old Hall is semi-detached to the Victorian house. It is often known as the ‘Tudor Hall’ but it is neither Tudor or a Hall! The name Hall would suggest a medieval origin as medieval manor houses were called halls, even if the buildings were rebuilt later and simply retained the name. However we know that Haden Hall or any earlier building on site was not a manor house or home of a lord of the manor. The Hall was probably originally built around the late 1600s as the home of the Hadens probably a wealthy farming family and we know they were buying up pockets of land locally to rent out. The Haden were part of the ‘middling sort’, wealth but not rich. In the late 1600s they begin to call themselves gentlemen as the family wealth and status grew. Evidence suggests the hall was later split into two farm dwellings. By the time Mr Haden-Best inherited in the 1870s he wished to build a new house to live in. The Old Hall has been rebuilt and restored many times over its lifetime and what you see today is largely a copy of the building which once stood there. We don’t know how much of the historic fabric remains.

We believe he intended to eventually demolish the old hall and build an extension to the Victorian house in its place, but this never happened.

Although the Victorian house is furnished as a museum with Victorian objects, Haden Old Hall is now just a shell after it was damaged by fire and partly restored.

John Bunyan Museum and Library

The collection now held in the Museum was brought together and put on display for the first time in 1946. It was housed in a room which had been used and made secure by the BBC during World War Two.

In 1988 the members of Bunyan Meeting Church embarked upon a project to refurbish some of the  meeting rooms and to construct a purpose built museum to house the large collection of artefacts and books relating to John Bunyan. After ten years of fundraising the new museum was officially opened in 1998.

This modern museum depicts John Bunyan’s life and times, including his imprisonment in Bedford. Visitors can wander through the displays and experience life as it was in the 17th century.

World of Glass

We have live glassblowing, over 30 stunning displays and an amazing special effects film show. 
We can accommodate larger groups of all ages at special rates too, as well as educational school visits which combine fun and learning. 
A unique location for your corporate hospitality and company meetings. 
Easy wheelchair access around the museum and galleries, with hearing loop facilities in certain areas. 
Check out our On-line Museum before you visit – if you can’t make it in person then you can still see lots of items from the fabulous collections here at The World of Glass.

Penrhyn Castle

This 19th-century neo-Norman castle sits between Snowdonia and the Menai Strait. It’s crammed with fascinating items, such as a one-ton slate bed made for Queen Victoria, elaborate carvings, plasterwork and mock-Norman furniture. In addition, it has an outstanding collection of paintings.The restored kitchens are a delight and the stable block houses a fascinating industrial railway museum.The 24.3 hectares (60 acres) of grounds include parkland, an exotic tree and shrub collection as well as a Victorian walled garden.

Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution

The Bath Literary and Scientific Institution (the ‘Royal’ part came later) was founded in 1824, but was a direct descendant of Bath societies going back to the 1770s. Our first home was a purpose-built building near Bath Abbey which made way for a 20th-Century road scheme, and we now live in Queen Square, on a site originally the home of Dr William Oliver, inventor of the Bath Oliver biscuit and a key figure in Bath’s early 18th-Century development.

Scottish National Gallery

Situated in the heart of Edinburgh, the Scottish National Gallery is home to one of the best collections of fine art in the world.

The Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art

The Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art opened in London in 1998. A Grade II listed Georgian town house, it was originally restored with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Further recent renovations have opened up the space of the ground-floor entranceway, bookshop and café, while its six galleries and art library have also been fully upgraded. The Collection is known internationally for its core of Futurist works, as well as figurative art and sculpture dating from 1890 to the 1950s. The exhibition programme continues to address artists, movements, and questions in ways that change our understanding of Italian art and culture.

The Farmland Museum

The Museum started out as bits of broken pottery kept in a shoebox by four-year-old Craig Delanoy in the village of Haddenham in 1969.

The museum opened for one Sunday a month and was run solely by volunteers under the curatorship of Mike and Lorna Delanoy (Craig’s parents) who received MBE’s for their services to museums and raising money for good causes.

The collection grew and after being in Mike and Lorna’s  garden until the early 1990s it opened in March 1997 at its current Denny Abbey site.

The collection, which now consists of over ten thousand objects, focuses on the farming and rural life of north and south Cambridgeshire which also incorporates a bygone collection by Frank Fossey of over two thousand objects.

St Neots Museum

From prehistoric to modern day

St Neots Museum was opened in 1995, in what was the Old Court – a former police station and law court building in New Street

The museum presents the history of the busy market town of St Neots on the River Ouse, from prehistoric times onwards and includes the original early 20th century gaol cells where prisoners where detained.

Learn about the life of St Neot himself, about the medieval priory that once thrived here, and the Civil War battle of St Neots. Discover the story of the Great North Road and the coaches that made St Neot’s such an important staging post, and how the town changed with the coming of the railroad in 1851.