Films

Buxton Museum and Art Gallery and its partners have made some insightful and exciting short films over the years. Here is a selection but there are many more on Buxton Museum’s YouTube channel, including fun art projects you can do at home with things you have lying around.

Frag Last reveals how to handle implements and tools correctly by examining objects from our collection.

Local film-maker Jimmy Hyland made these promotional videos to highlight the new Wonders of the Peak Gallery and its app.

The Miltons Head in Buxton used to be known as The Blood Tub!

Animation meets with local memories: Swimming at the Natural Baths, Buxton. Oral histories collected as part of the Present from the Past partnership between Buxton Museum.

This is a fun piece of animation that was made to go alongside exhibitions from a special project called Enlightenment! Derbyshire Setting the Pace in the Eighteenth Century from 2008 to 2013. Highwaymen, artists, mills, trains and hoards of tourists…. not the peaceful trip to Dovedale that you were expecting!

Here is a  short film about the discovery of the Ridley Vein on Blue John, and the making of the Ridley Chalice for display at Buxton Museum and Art Gallery.

Peak District archaeologist, John Barnatt, offers his insight on the ancient monuments at Arbor Low, and the changes that took place in society 4,500 years ago. Put to animation by Staffordshire University student, James Cummins, over the summer of 2017. Images courtesy of Buxton Museum and Art Gallery and Museums Sheffield.

Ever wondered how they made those wonderful objects from Ashford Black Marble in the Wonders of the Peak? Here is a craftsman’s perspective.

This film is part of the Derbyshire Museum Archive, cared for by Derbyshire County Council: Buxton Museum and Art Gallery. It has been through various incarnations but has now been digitised to make it more accessible to the public, as part of the Collections in the Landscape project. This film reveals the famous but rarely seen industry of rope-making in Peak Cavern in Castleton.

How did the Peak District landscape form? This animation explores the answer through a 360 million year journey. Produced by Spiral Productions for Buxton Museum and Art Gallery during the Heritage Lottery Funded ‘Collections in the Landscape’ project.

Do you remember what shopping in Buxton used to be like? As part of HLF-funded project Collections in the Landscape, some of the museum team collected the long-term memories of some local residents to accompany these characterful establishments.

Did you ever sneak into pavilion gardens? Go on the boats? Feed the ducks? Pay your 10 shillings to see the Beatles?

Buxton Museum has been open to visitors for 125 years. In celebration of this fact, the museum ran the BM125 project in 2018/2019, funded by the Arts Council. We commissioned four emerging artists to create performance pieces that celebrate our collections.

Sean Harris created a lantern presentation for Victory Quarry, where the remains of a sabre-tooth cat were found in 1901. You can see the cat’s tooth on display in our Wonders of the Peak Gallery.

Rob Young  brings to life the Buxton mermaid. A strange creature made from fish skin and human hair, on display in the museum’s Boyd Dawkins Study. You can find out more here.

Jimmy Hyland made a documentary about Rob’s creation and the Buxton Mermaid Festival.

Kevin Edward Turner and Kidology Arts envisaged the story behind the Hopton handaxe, lost or abonded by its owner and on display in the Wonders of the Peak Gallery. They worked with refugee communties in Derby to create My Sister’s Scarf. What would you take if you had to leave home at a moments notice?

Will Hurt made our mineral collection sing. You can use his cystalline software interactives here.