Cliffe Castle Museum

  

Cliffe Castle Museum was originally the spectacular mansion of the local Victorian millionaire and textile manufacturer, H I Butterfield. It stands in attractive hillside grounds with greenhouses and garden centre, aviaries and a childrens‚ play area.

The house is now a large museum with a wide variety of displays. These include an array of glittering minerals, local rocks and fossils (including a 2m long fossil newt!), mounted birds and animals, original furnished rooms with chandeliers, William Morris stained glass, old dolls, toys and domestic items and a programme of temporary exhibitions.

Learning activities and events take place throughout the year in the InSight room. Groups of all kinds can be catered for, from schools to senior citizens, and activities can be tailored to your needs.

**Latest News**
Staircase restoration project

This summer why not visit Cliffe Castle Museum in Keighley and enjoy our newly refurbished staircase carefully restored by local craftspeople using historic decorative techniques such as graining and gilding?

Cliffe Castle's Grand staircase was created in the 1870s by local architect George Smith. Smith helped design Saltaire village and was responsible for building some of the fine houses in Ilkley. His patron was textile millionaire Henry Isaac Butterfield who re-modelled the Castle in the 1870s and 80s.

When the Castle became a museum in the 1950s the delicate ironwork and elaborate graining were buried under 10 layers of black, red and white gloss paint.

After months of research work began in June to strip away the paint and recreate the graining. Sutton- in- Craven specialist grainer Stuart Toulmin took on the task of recreating the original light oak paint finish using over twenty brushes and delicate layers of tinted glaze. The ornamental ironwork was stripped and refinished before the brass roses were gilded. This was undertaken by Pam Keeton, gilding conservator of Thwaites Brow. Work continues throughout the month.


The staircase has been restored so that in July the stair carpet can be installed. Woven in Keighley the carpet is inspired by a fragment found in Cliffe Castle four years ago. The carpet is red with a blue fleur de lys pattern and was originally installed almost 170 years ago.

The images show the work as it has been carried out.

Each Tuesday in the School Summer Holidays Cliffe Castle has a family day of activities to help you enjoy our museum.

key

Prices

Free entry

Opening details

Nearby

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• Self Catering
• Camping & Touring