Cartwright Hall Art Gallery

Not the most obvious space to share for an archaelogy festival - but its an evocative space nevertheless.   Archaelogy can be as much about buildings and their connections, as objects found in digs.

It's built on the grounds of the old Manningham Hall using money given by Samuel Cunliffe Lister.  It was opened in 1904 and is designed by the same architects that designed Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow - and once you know this, its easy to pick out similarities in some of the designs....

Funded by the money acquired through textiles, and named after another figure important to textile development, the building and park itself are intristically linked to the history of the town, even though it's now primarily an art gallery.  Before other sites were acquired during the course of the 20th century, 'Cartwright Memorial Hall' as it used to be known displayed the whole range of of archaelogy, history and sciences, alongside art.  And memorabily for many, a working bee-hive  (that visitors still ask after!)

Grade II Listed statues of Samuel Cunliffe Lister and Titus Salt can be found in the park as well, as further links to the area's textile history.

The building and it's park figure in many peoples memories and that's what makes it special.   It pops up in some suprising places though -the next time you're watching Monty Python's 'The Meaning of Life' see if you can spot it...