Land of Lost Content (museum)

The Land of Lost Content is a museum in Craven Arms, Shropshire, that collects everyday objects such as toys, magazines and packaging.[1][2]

Front of the museum in 2011

The museum's name is taken from Poem XL in A. E. Housman's collection A Shropshire Lad.

History

The museum was founded by Stella Mitchell, who had begun collecting everyday objects while studying art in Birmingham in the 1970s.[3][4] She opened her first museum in 1991 with her husband Dave in West Sussex, before moving to Craven Arms in 2003.[3] The current premises is the town's former market hall, constructed in 1888, which the couple bought for £165,000.[5] It contains 37 separate displays spread out over four floors.[6]

In 2018, the museum was threatened with closure because it did not meet modern safety standards. The owners retrofitted the premises with additional fire doors and extinguishers.[7]

Collections

Objects in the museum include a variety of Chad Valley toys, bluebirds taken from the gates of the Blue Bird Toffee factory,[3][8] tickets from the first National Lottery in 1994 and a Sinclair C5.[5]

The museum is run without any funding or sponsorship and has relied on word of mouth to build a reputation for its collections and displays.[7] All of the museum's objects were popular and in everyday use at some point since the late Victorian era.[8] Though many items were mass-produced with no perceived value when collected by the museum, they have since acquired significance as they are attached to visitors' personal memories and a view to how people used to live.[3]

Donations

The Land of Lost Content has donated objects in its collections to various other museums and exhibitions. These include a 50th anniversary commemoration of the Festival of Britain in 2011, supplying 1930s posters to the Black Country Living Museum and furnishing a flat with contemporary objects in Balfron Tower as part of a National Trust display of Brutalist architecture in 2014.[3][9]

See also

References
  1. "15 UK market towns you'll want to discover". The Guardian. 17 April 2021. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  2. "Readers' tips: winter family days out". The Guardian. 21 February 2011. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  3. "Unique Shropshire museum celebrating 25 quirky years". Shropshire Star. 29 May 2016. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  4. "Unusual museums … way out days out". The Guardian. 12 August 2011. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  5. "Unforgettable". Birmingham Mail. 5 September 2008. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  6. "Shropshire's Land of Lost Content museum opens in December for first time". Shropshire Star. 2 December 2020. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  7. "Land of lost content re-opens in Craven Arms". Shropshire Star. 19 February 2019. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  8. "See inside the museum crammed with Birmingham and Black Country memories". Birmingham Mail. 10 November 2019. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  9. "National Trust opens 1960s pop-up flat in iconic tower". East London Lines. 26 September 2014. Retrieved 10 August 2021.

52.4398°N 2.8334°W / 52.4398; -2.8334

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