SCHEME FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A LOCAL MUSEUM
by T. W. Woodhead

AIMS OF A LOCAL MUSEUM
The aims of a local Museum should be to illustrate the origin, structure, physical features, natural-history and conditions of life of the district. The history of its inhabitants and their activities in relation to local conditions and to the world outside. The diagram will serve to illustrate the inter-relations of the main factors of man’s environment, and at the same time to show the extensive ramifications and importance of these factors when studied in their local bearing. The diagram should be read from below upwards. The small diagram in the right hand bottom corner indicates the 3 spheres of which our earth exists:-

(1) Lithosphere, or solid crust of the earth.
(2) Hydrosphere, the water forming oceans, seas, lakes and rivers, and the ground-water in the land areas.
(3) Atmosphere, the envelope of air.

Variations in these spheres of distribution, elevation, temperature, humidity, rainfall, and the like, constitutes what we know as climate. The interactions of atmospheric agents and water on the solid crust, have produced many of the surface features as we now know them. Turning now to the main diagram we will consider some of the details more closely, and also very briefly their local significance and the place they would occupy in a local Museum.

Fig 5. Farmland and Woodland on the Lower Coal Measures.
Sand Ings to Whitley Beaumont

THE HABITAT
Huddersfield is a habitat for living organisms may be dealt with under four heads:-

(a) Geology – used here in the sense of Lithosphere, is the solid crust of rock materials on which the climatic elements work and which provide the material foundation for living things. This section of the Museum would show the rocks of the district and their position with reference to the rocks of Britain, by specimens, maps and models; also selected illustrations of the conditions prior to the period to which our local rocks belong. Local fossils and rocks would be dealt with in detail to illustrate the fauna and flora, and the life conditions during the Carboniferous period. Following these, a selection to illustrate the chief subsequent changes, down to recent times. Local minerals, their occurrence, economic importance and local influence, e.g., building materials – sandstones, flagstones, shales and clays, also iron, coal, ganisters and fire clays; their origin, composition, properties and uses.
(b) Topography, or surface relief, with its varied massif, aspects and drainage systems. Influence of earth movements in determining the form of the district. Effects of eroding and transporting agents. Examples and distribution of transported materials. Relief maps to show how erosion has led to the exposure of the various beds of rock seen at the surface, rendering some parts sandy and dry, others clayey and damp, and thus affecting not only sites for habitations, but man’s operations in cultivating the soil, and the relative ease with which he is able to obtain the minerals for his daily needs.
(c) Climate – Meteorological records. Rainfall and temperature Maps. Atmospheric impurities. The action of water, air, heat and light on the rock materials and on local plants and animals. These climatic factors are nature’s sculptors, the solid crust is the raw material on which they work, the finished product being the surface relief as we now see it. The significance of variations in altitude and aspect, rainfall and temperature, and how these affect our water supply and determine our activities.
(d) Soils – The surface debris of this incessant sculpturing provides mineral food for plants, and forms one of the important factors in their environment and distribution, especially as to whether the soils are siliceous or calcareous, and contain much or little organic matter. The distribution of soils, their origin, variation and properties.

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