© Bacup Natural History Society 2022
FLINTS FOSSILS & MINERALS
Our geological staircase contains three wall frames presenting the history of fossils from 550 million years ago up through to Stone Age Man
in 3 steps – early life – middle life – and recent life. These frames have been described as masterpieces of miniaturisation which are unique
to the Bacup Natural History Society.
At the top of the stairs is a geological cross section of the layers in Greens Clough, north of Bacup
a happy hunting ground for the Nat geologist. The cloughs north and east of Bacup have simple
structure and horizontal layers and are completely ‘open book‘of the rock layers and coal seams,
so important to Bacup’s development.
Sunday afternoon rambles were a popular Victorian pastime. Members of the early ‘NAT’ were
encouraged to bring in natural history, fossil and flint specimens collected during their rambles.
Many of the fossils and flints they collected are still available to view today.
DOMESTIC AND MILITARY COLLECTIONS
Over the years the focus of the museum has switched to local history. Like elsewhere Bacup
has a rich social and military history all of which are reflected in tour collections.
Weapons, tools and flints from, the stone age, bronze age and iron age all feature in our
permenant displays. Entomology, botany and some of our oldest natural history specimens sit alongside what is known as Dr Worralls
cabinet a Victorian collectors cabinet of curiosities. Whilst our mining and industrial collections provide a glimpse of a working way of life
in Bacup now long gone. A lamp carried on the last passenger train out of Bacup to Rochdale on the 16th June 1947, features in our transport
displays.
Our military collections include over 50 medals awarded to men from Bacup & Stacksteads who took part in WW1 and WW2, including
those awarded to A.B Norman Clegg who in 1943 continued to lift 50lb pans of ammunition to the gun despite having had his arm fractured
in two places by shell splinters. Other artefacts in the collections include an American Civil War cap worn by Bacup man Henry Redmond,
sand and shrapnel from the beaches of Normandy and from closer to home a piece of bomb shrapnel from a bomb that landed on the Thorn
Estate during the early hours of Monday the 21st October 1940.
A beautiful christening gown, forms a backdrop to our Victorian school, police and fire displays whilst opposite these displays we hark back
to 1920 when Nat member John Cook started the very first Bacup Camera Club. A world of science, fun and laughter childhood and music
and dance comes next before our numismatics collections which includes money and tokens once used in the shops and on transport in and
around Bacup.
UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT
Is our brand new exhibition in which we will feature the stories / artefacts and collections of some
remarkable Bacupians and their associations of the past.
Dr Herbert Bolton FRSE FGS
Herbert the second son of James a cotton warper and Hannah Bolton was born in Bacup in 1863. Working
as a doffer and then a weaver Herbert along with his older brother Levi was one of the early members of
the Bacup Natural History Society. A former student in the science classes of the Bacup Mechanics Institute night school he won a
scholarship to the Royal College of Science, South Kensington, where he was a fellow student with H. G. Wells and Arthur Morley Davies.
He afterwards went to Owen’s College, Manchester where he studied under Professor William Boyd Dawkins and was awarded an M.Sc.
The same Professor who on the 5th October 1889, formally declared the new premises of the Bacup Natural History Society at 6 St James
Street open.
A year after publishing his first book in December 1889 “The Geology of Rossendale” Herbert was appointed as assistant keeper in the
Manchester Museum. In 1898 Herbert was appointed as the Director of the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery a role he carried out until his
retirement in 1930. Known as an authority on fossil insects he published several books, including the two volumes Monograph of the Fossil
insects of the British Coal Measures (1922). He was awarded the Murchison Fund for 1922 by the Geological Society and was president of
the Museum Association in 1924.
Herbert died aged 72 on 18th January 1931 at his home in Reading.
The NAT has a collection of fossils that Herbert donated whilst he was the Director of the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery and a collection
of his written works signed by Herbert and in which he writes” To the Bacup Natural History Society, from an old member Herbert Bolton”.
A selection of the fossils found in Bacup coal mines and his pamphlets are on display along with his diploma.
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