Bolton Museum, Aquarium and Archive — Attraction in Bolton

Bolton Museum is a public museum and art gallery in the town of Bolton, Greater Manchester, northern England, owned by Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council. The museum is housed within the grade II listed Le Mans Crescent near Bolton Town Hall and shares its main entrance with the central library in a purpose built civic centre. The building has good accessibility.

The origins of the current museum date to 1852 when the town adopted the Libraries and Museums Act, leading to the opening of the towns first Library in Victoria Square, now site of the Nationwide Building Society. At that time the town did not have a public collection to create a museum. The first collection donated was of fossils in the Library opening year of 1853. The collections of the Museum grew slowly and by 1876 hosted a good collection of scientific specimens and ethnographic objects, with the collections growing there was public support for a separate museum, however, the local authority was not willing to use its funds for this purpose.

Mere Hall was donated to the town as an Art Gallery by J.P. Thomasson in 1890, the art comprising mostly 19th-century oil paintings and some older works, including Noah Leaving the Ark by Adam Colonia. From 1897 the local authority began to buy North West contemporary art often from summer exhibitions held at Mere Hall including artists Fred Balshaw, Alfred Heaton Cooper and Samuel Towers. In 1938, the collections of Mere Hall were transferred to a purpose-built gallery at Le Mans Crescent, most of its collection was subsequently disposed of before 1948 to make way for new acquisitions. Mere Hall became local authority offices used for weddings until 2016, becoming a music and performance education centre in 2019.

The grade 1 listed Hall i' th' Wood was donated as a museum for Samuel Crompton by Lord Leverhulme in 1899, opening in 1902 after restoration. Leverhulme had also proposed a total redesign of Bolton which included an expanded Chadwick Museum at Queen's Park, this plan was rejected but parts of it gave rise to the building of the current Le Mans Crescent in the 1930s. The 'Hall i' th' Wood' museum has continued in its original purpose.

Smithills Hall opened in 1963 and a Nature Trail Museum opened in its Park in 1975, and Little Bolton Town Hall operated as a Museum from 1979. All branch museums except Hall i' th' Wood and Smithills closed due to budget cuts, a gallery at Le Mans Crescent became the local history and archive section, now managed by the museum. Large collections of over 400,000 museum objects formerly displayed are held in storage off-site; details are contained within the museum's Acquisition and Disposal Policy

The Chadwick Resource Centre is a museum collections store and research centre housing approximately 60,000 objects that opened in 2012 at Union Road,...

This is not a 15th century building as Google states in Maps. The Town Hall opposite was finished in the 1870s, and the Museum, Library and Archives building which forms the Crescent was finished in the 1930s. The building is stated on Wikipedia to be Grade 2 listed, and the beauty of the architecture caused fascinated comment from my South African friends. This building is less ornate than the Town Hall, but still very beautiful. Inside, the grand foyer with its two sweeping staircases provides a fitting setting for a mind that wants to learn and explore. The basement Aquarium has relatively small tanks and displays compared to the world class conservation work which is carried on there. All donations are welcomed in support. We didn't take time to go into the Library or the Art Gallery today, but went directly to the main hall of the Museum, with its focus on the local area. It was good to see how many regular activities - many without charge or with only a minimal cost - are arranged for drawing children in and helping them value and use the displays. The displayed explanations of the local industrial heritage which so transformed the town amplified my statement to my friends that "up here [myself being a Southerner] there isn't much that wasn't touched by the Industrial Revolution". Some of the taxidermy on display (my grandfather was foreman at Rowland Ward) could do with restoration. But generally it has been cared for and maintained, and the value of a diorama or a display from the habits of Victoria and Edwardian collectors is that - as they intended - there is education and greater appreciation of the wider world than is available in normal daily life. We went to the Egyptian section, which was refurbished a few years ago. I'm glad to see that the infamous Amarna Princess heads a display which warns of the dangers of forgeries. Although this is in retrospect, it is most appropriate for today's society for Internet fraud is no different, save in presentation and ease of victims. Think outside the presented box, and the past soon becomes a key to appreciating the present and wondering about and perhaps influencing the future at this excellent...

It's my first time going here . It has three sections one is aquarium , history section and library as well. The entry was free as i went here with my nephew But i was not impressed by the aquarium as the variety of fishes was so less . It's may be to enjoy a bit . They should add more variety and make room for more fishes so adults and kids both enjoy more variety of fishes. They should put some exotic fishes if possible . There are so many beautifull species in the world . There was no jelly fish as well.

Then went into history section . It was full of info about bolton , Egypt and a bit of old britian as well. 😃 loved the egypt and mummies part though . Nephew enjoyed that too.🥰 They show you a movie which starts after every 10 min interval and it was good as there is a sitting area as well. But one down side was that it did not do the commentary for kids as adults can readthe story but it's difficult for the kids to comprehend the story because small kids can not read it ... Hope they do add the talking part like story-telling section as well which would be awesome . I hope they add more stuff in the museum . Then art section came in that was a bit small too. But okay to visit. A gift shop while leaving the floor . Overall it was good , staff was helping and polite . But not for going the second time . Still one time visit is great i believe in order to get a glimpse in bolton's...