Red House Museum and Gardens is located near to Christchurch Priory and is a volunteer led venue which doesn’t have an admission charge.
As the signage notes, the building was constructed to be a workhouse. The museum itself adds about the history:
“The building dates from 1764 and was the parish workhouse for Christchurch and Bournemouth. In 1886, as a result of the increasing population, a new union workhouse was built in Fairmile and the old house was sold to the vicar of Christchurch Priory, the Reverend T. H. Bush. Reverend Bush named the building ‘The Red House’ after the colour of the bricks and he demolished the women’s wards in 1887 to construct the stables, now the temporary exhibition gallery. Later, the building became the private museum of Herbert Druitt, an avid local collector. It was his passion for textile and fashion, bygones and archaeological material that created the Red House Museum collections. In 1951, the Red House Museum became a charitable trust and our doors have been open to the public ever since.”
There was a friendly welcome from the volunteer at the front desk who explained about the museum, with this being the ground floor that was once the living and dining area of the workhouse.
The displays are a little eclectic, but this is a provincial museum and it is trying to cover a lot of ground. It’s more quirky than formal, but there’s a place for museums like this.
A display on fusee chain making and this was part of the clock and watch making process. It’s explained here that someone living in the workhouse might be required to complete this task for over seventy hours a week. They wouldn’t have been paid directly for their efforts, but they would have living accommodation and meals provided, so they were at least safe if hardly living in great comfort. Although the Victorians often decided that there were benefit fraudsters and so conditions in workhouses often declined towards the end of the nineteenth century.
A display about architectural finds in the local region.
An old menu board from the workhouse.
And an example of the culinary delights that were served up.
A plan of the workhouse from an old Ordnance Survey map.
The rear of the museum.
There’s a small dinosaur garden to the rear of the museum and a path which winds around so that visitors can see them all.
To be fair, this is a great idea for kids to want to come to the museum. Well, and Ross liked them. The plan seemed to work, there were numerous families looking around the museum and although a visit isn’t likely to take more than an hour or so, it’s definitely worth a little pop in.