Ruskin Museum

The Ruskin Museum is a small local museum in Coniston, a village beside Coniston Water in the English Lake District. It was set up in 1901 by W. G. Collingwood, an artist and antiquarian who had worked as secretary to the art critic John Ruskin. The museum acts both as a memorial to Ruskin and as a record of the history and heritage of Coniston Water and the surrounding fells. It is run by a registered charity called The Coniston Institute and Ruskin Museum. The building itself is modest, yet it holds a wide range of local stories. The museum is worth visiting for several reasons. It keeps important collections on the copper and slate mines that once shaped the area’s economy. There are also displays on lace making, farming, and the writer Arthur Ransome, whose books are set around the lake. A large part of the museum is devoted to the life and work of John Ruskin, the Victorian critic and social thinker. Outside, a collection of over sixty miniature buildings made by local builder John Usher stands in the grounds. These tiny slate and stone structures were moved here after Usher’s death and now form one of the museum’s unusual attractions. Inside, visitors find rooms filled with exhibits on local industries and crafts. A specialist display tells the story of Donald Campbell’s attempts to break water speed records on Coniston Water. His hydroplane, Bluebird K7, is now housed in a purpose-built wing added in 2010. The grounds also include a kiosk with copper tiles decorated by local people, which explains the area’s copper mining past. Nearby stands a community bread oven, another recent addition to the site. The museum offers a quiet but rewarding look at the people and places that have shaped this corner of the Lake District.