Are you a Meccano person?

Lawrence House Museum is looking for any Meccano enthusiasts, old or young, who can help us make new models from a collection of authentic Meccano. Toy curator, Sylvia Wright would love to hear from you if you are interested in helping.

Telephone the museum on 01566 773277 or email lawrencehousemuseum@yahoo.co.uk to leave her a message and she will get back to you.

If our summer continues as unpredictably as it has so far, Lawrence House Museum is an ideal free excursion for all ages. If it’s too hot, it’s lovely and cool inside and the garden is a great place for a picnic.  As it’s free, you can come in as often as you like. There’s a “Find the Beatrix Potter characters” quiz for children who can also track down the Mermaid of Widemouth Bay and her trusty Seahorse, Hippy, who are having fun hiding in the Museum.  She may reveal her name to children under 12 who find her and they can take part in our Mermaid naming competition.

Then for rainy days you can take home one or two of our Mermaid colouring sheets especially designed by local artist, Karen Farrington, and enter our colouring and painting competition. You can even write a story about her.  She used to be a Barbie “Spy Doll” so how did she end up alone on the beach at Widemouth?  We want to know! 

Come to the Museum with your family and you can enter all 3 competitions. Otho Peter’s watercolours of bridges in North Cornwall and West Devon are still on display next to the superb photos of the same bridges taken by Launceston Camera Club, as is the exhibit explaining how cooking made us human with lots of objects from the museum’s collection.

Upstairs, as well as some new wedding dresses, including a pink one, we have a display of children’s clothes including a sturdy suit from Treleaven’s and a fine example of smocking. Come and put a penny in our working Polyphon, the 1880’s version of the juke box. All 50 of the museum’s Polyphon discs have been recorded and are available on a unique double CD called “Strictly Polyphon” because so many of the tunes were intended for dancing.

The CD is available to buy at both the Museum and Launceston Tourist Information Centre for £10 and makes a delightful souvenir for singing along to in the car, dancing round the kitchen or soothing a fractious child to sleep.

The museum is open every weekday (including bank holidays) and Saturdays 13 August and 10 September until Friday 28 October during the hours of 10.30 to 4.30 (last admission 4pm). Check our website: www.lawrencehousemuseum.org.uk

Address: 9 Castle Street, Launceston. PL15 8BA