The Forum, Castleford

Following a tip off from one of our community curators at Castleford Museum, we have recently become aware of a painting by T. Wainwright showing Castleford's 'Forum'.  The lamp post at the junction of Aire Street and Bridge Street acted as a meeting place and a starting point for events and public debate, and therefore became known as the Forum.

Yorkshire Square

T. Wainwright

Oil on canvas

1892

© Compton Verney, Warwickshire. Photograph by Jamie Woodley. 

The painting is held by Compton Verney in Warwickshire and is currently on display in their Folk Art Galleries: Compton Verney Folk Art Collection.  As a another local connection, Compton Verney currently have on an exhibition about Henry Moore, who was born in Castleford - Moore Rodin Exhibition

During the General Strike in 1926, photographer and hairdresser Jack Hulme of Fryston photographed the lamp post. This photograph and others by Jack Hulme can be seen on display at Castleford Museum.

Killing time at 'The Forum' during the general strike in 1926

The lamp post can be seen again in these photographs from the 'Twixt Aire & Calder website: 'Twixt Aire and Calder.  

Bridge Street, Castleford, in the early 1900s

The Forum around 1900

The George & Dragon Inn seen to the right of the T Wainwright painting was demolished in 1976 to make way for a new roundabout.  This photo was taken in 1970.

You can see the surviving shop front, and the George and Dragon in this 1960s photograph:

Wakefield Museums also have some other paintings by T. Wainwright in the collection:

'Fryston Road, Airedale', 1907

'Pontefract Road, Castleford' 1907

'Pontefrcat Road, Castleford' , 1907

The idea of a forum connects Castleford to its Roman past. In Roman Britain’s bigger cities the Forum was a public space where business was conducted, meetings were held and decisions made. Roman forums have long since gone and so has Castleford’s lamp post. Castleford Forum Library and Museum is a new opportunity to meet up and start a new conversation.

Castleford Forum Library and Museum Opens today!

We are very pleased to announce that the new library and museum in Castleford Forum opens at 2pm today!

• Henry Moore's early life.
• Displays of archaeology from Bronze Age to Roman, including the amazing Iron Age Chariot.
• Mining, Castleford glass and pottery - and the extraordinary images of the every-day by Jack Hulme.
• Plus four community-curated displays:
• Rugby, Victorian women's occupations, milling and beauty.

To celebrate the opening, we have a range of activities and events planned for the New Year.  
 

Explore the new library and museum - and get involved!

Alternate Thursdays
13 & 27 February, 13 & 27 March
Meet the Curator
10am to 12 noon
Bring in your objects for advice on their care and research, or to find out more about what is on display.

Friday 14 February
Meet the Henry Moore Curator
10am to 12 noon
A chance to meet the curator of the Henry Moore displays and discover more about the artist.

Saturday 15 February
Painted Pots
9.45 to 11am or 11.30 to 1pm - for families with children aged 7+
2 to 4pm - for adults and children aged 15+
Come and see the Castleford-made Art-Deco pottery, and work with an artist to decorate your own to be fired and collected later.
Booking essential as places are limited - call 01924 302700 or email.

Monday 17 February
Tribal Trinkets
11am to 2pm
Suitable for families with children aged 4-12
Castleford Museum has some jewellery worn by people of the Iron Age Brigantes tribe. At the drop-in craft session, you can make your own amazing Iron Age-style jewels to take home.

Thursday 20 February
From Mercury to Jupiter
11am to 2pm
Suitable for families with children aged 4-12
There were many gods and goddesses worshipped by the Romans. Come and see an original stone sculpture to one of these gods and create your own god or goddess. Please wear clothes you do not mind getting a bit messy!

Saturday 29 March
Roman Day!
10am- 3pm
The Romans are coming!  Comeand meet the Romans and find out how they lived in Castleford with fun activities for all the family.

 
For these and more FREE events, pop into the new Castleford Forum Library and Museum, and pick up a leaflet.
 

Working with other local museums

Our staff have met up with some other museums in Wakefield to help out, share ideas and develop projects.

Curator John Whitaker and Local Studies Librarian Claire Pickering made a trip down to The Hepworth Wakefield to help them find out more about a mill building they are opening as a new exhibition space this summer.  The ground floor of the building on Wakefield waterfront which will be transformed into a gallery has a long history.

 

By looking through historic maps in the Local Studies Library we learned that the building (or at least versions of it) has been in use for at least 200 years. In the in the 1820s it is listed as Tootal's warehouse. Tootal was a corn factor (someone who traded in corn rather than produced it) so it probably stored corn. It became part of the Victorian Rutland Mills complex and was used in textile manufacture and was occupied by Patons and Baldwins from the 1920s. Textile firm Caddies Wainwrights took it over in the 1970s and it was part of the Arts Mill in the 1990s before becoming part of a major Waterfront Redevelopment scheme from 1997.  The Local Studies library has a wealth of information about Wakefield's buildings and businesses.



Local Studies Librarian Claire Pickering explores trade directories with Hepworth's Head of Communications and Marketing Hollie Latham

Cara Sutherland, the new curator at the Museum of Mental Health came to see us last week too. The museum, formally known as the Stephan Beaumont Museum  is currently being redeveloped and reorganised . The museum uses objects from Wakefield's West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum, also known as Stanley Royd Hospital to explore our changing attitudes and treatments of mental illness. The collections, which include a padded cell, are very important and many objects were salvaged from the site before it was demolished and converted into apartments. Cara is very keen to get to grips the fantastic collections they have and get the museum refurbished and reopened.

Cara Sutherland next to Wakefield Museum's improving lives case which displays a sampler made by a patient at the asylum and a whistle used by one of its nurses.