Land of Lost Content

The Land of Lost Content was a museum in Craven Arms, Shropshire, that gathered everyday objects such as toys, magazines and packaging. It occupied the town’s former market hall, built in 1888. Stella Mitchell started collecting while studying art in Birmingham during the 1970s. She opened the first museum in 1991 with her husband Dave in West Sussex. In 2003 they moved the collection to Craven Arms. The four-storey building held 37 separate displays. The museum’s name came from Poem XL in A. E. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad. It showed objects in everyday use since the late Victorian era. Among them were Chad Valley toys, Blue Bird Toffee factory gates and a Sinclair C5. The displays had no funding or sponsorship and relied on word of mouth. Many visitors recognised items from their own memories and saw how people used to live. Visitors found rooms filled with familiar objects arranged across four floors. The building’s high ceilings and large windows let light fall on the exhibits. The displays included tickets from the first National Lottery draw in 1994. After legal problems in 2023, the museum closed and the property was sold. Some objects were later donated to other museums and exhibitions.