The Society and its Museum

The object of the Society is advancement of education of the public by promoting research into the history and antiquities, natural history and literature of Louth and neighborhood, arranging public lectures, publishing the results of research, and running the Museum for the benefit of the public.

The Society is the second oldest organisation of its kind in Lincolnshire. It was founded in 1884, first as a naturalists' club, by five teenagers, and quickly attracted leading citizens of the town. A small meeting room and museum was established and the title extended to Antiquarian and Naturalists' - hence the still used colloquial name 'Ants and Nats'; Literary was added in 1909.

the Borough Council gave a plot of land and the Society raised the money (£529 16s 6d) to build the single museum to house the growing collection of donated artifacts. It opened in October 1910. The architect was John James Creswell (his father, Samuel, was President of the Society 1903 - 09) who had been a pupil and leading assistant of the prolific Louth architect James Fowler. His design was unusual in having an internal concrete girder frame construction with brick cavity walls (bricks from Mablethorpe) and a flat roof with glass lantern. It was described (1999) as one of the few small museums purpose-built by a learned society in the UK.

When the Louth Mechanics' Institute (founded 1834) was wound up in 1956, its assets - the Mansion House or Assembly Rooms (Grade II*, 1750) with library and artifacts - passed to the Society.

The displays in the single gallery Museum were redesigned by the Midlands Museums Service in 1963-64. However, by the early 1980s the Museum had become increasingly crowded as the collections grew, and some were soared in the Mansion House. The 1990s saw advances in the management of the Society's affairs and its properties. Membership doubled to over 200, mainly through an attractive program of 20 weekly winter lectures and two summer excursions. In 1992 the Society also embarked on publishing books, largely based on research by members: 13 have been published with three forthcoming.

in 1990 the Society undertook a major scheme to upgrade the Museum, with structural work, new heating and lighting, decoration and re-organising displays, from its own resources. Four years later grants were obtained to replace the flat roof and leaky glass lantern with a pitched roof and leaky glass lantern with a pitched roof, and the Museum achieved full registration status in 1995.

By the end of the millennium the 90-year old Museum had reached the point where it was inadequate to display and store its local and national heritage collections. Moreover, the ability to undertake educational work for schools was constrained by the lack of space in the gallery. The Society therefore embarked on an ambitious scheme to extend the Museum to include a classroom/ library and environmentally controlled sore, to provide disabled access throughout and completely refit the displays.

The extension has been built using reclaimed bricks and other materials, including the front railings, from a building of similar date (1912) at Sutton on Sea. Artifacts have been restored, designs created to interpret key elements of the local heritage, and a number of objects in the collections will be on public display for the first time.

The £660,000 project has been made possible through the substantial grant of £434,500 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, with major matching grants from the European Regional Development Fund (£41,887), Waste Recycling Environmental (£26,257), Lincolnshire Enterprise (£25,000), East Lindsey District Council (£25,000), Lincolnshire County Council £7,500) and Louth Town Council (£6,250), together with a generous private donation of £30,000 from Mr Hugh Bourn, Financial support has also come from grant-making charities and foundations, local businesses and organisations, and through the Society's own fund-raising including individual donations and the 'Adapt an Artifact' scheme.

There will be free public guided tours of the Museum to see work in progress in the autumn. Re-opening fully to the public in March 2006 will also see the launch of the Society's Education and Community Heritage project, aimed primarily at local schools, which is funded by the East Midlands Museums, Archives and Libraries Council and Lincolnshire County Council.

 

Louth Naturalists', Antiquarian and Literary Society

Founded 1884

President: D N Robinson OBE MSc

Patrons:

The Earl of Yarbourgh Professor

Mrs Catherine Wilson OBE FSA

Sir Patrick Cormack FSA MP

Anthony Dickson OBE

Barbara Dickson OBE

The Lord Norton of Louth

With thanks to Our Sponsors:
       Hugh Bourn

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