Luton Museum & Art Gallery
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Luton Museum & Art Gallery in Luton is housed in a large Victorian mansion in Wardown Park on the outskirts of the town centre. The museum collection focusses on the traditional crafts of Bedfordshire, notably lace-making and hat-making. There are samples of local lace from as early as the 17th century.
The Women's Hat Industry collection features over 600 hats in an extensive collection (hats are in storage and can be viewed by appointment only) and there are extensive displays of decorative arts, including Saxon jewelry.
There are also exhibits of costumes, straw-plaiting, fine arts, and several Victorian room settings, as well as medieval guild books.
The first floor galleries opened as the Luton Life displays in February 2003. Funded with the assistance of the Heritage Lottery Fund, the displays explore the stories of Luton people over the past 150 years. Throughout the galleries there are listening posts where visitors can listen to Lutonians telling their stories. There are also hands-on exhibits and touchscreen computers with images of old Luton.
The ground floor galleries include the Living Landscape gallery with displays on archaeology and natural history (including the nationally important Shillington Roman coin hoard and a Bronze Age mirror), finds from Waulud's Bank are also on display.
The Lace Gallery displays some of the museum’s extensive collection of local lace and the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire gallery tells the story of this local regiment.
The ground floor also houses the exhibition gallery.
[edit] The Wenlock Jug
This bronze jug was almost sold to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art for £750,000 but was export-stopped in October 2005 by culture minister, David Lammy, based on a recommendation by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest, run by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.
Decorated with coats of arms, including the royal arms used between 1340 and 1405, the jug bears the inscription My Lord Wenlock. It is thought the jug was made for either William Wenlock, who died in 1391 and was canon of St Paul’s Cathedral, Archdeacon of Rochester and a canon of King’s Chapel, Westminster, or his great-nephew John, the first Lord Wenlock, who was a major figure in the fifteenth century serving every king from Henry V to Edward IV. Both had strong connections with Luton.
“The two Wenlocks associated with the jug, William and his nephew John, both lived in Luton and the family name figures in the medieval guild register in our collection” Maggie Appleton, Luton museum.
It was bought by Luton Museums Service for 300 times its normal annual acquisitions budget to equal the offer of the Metropolitan[1], thanks to the overwhelming generosity of several key organisations and donations from many individuals. It is a rare example of a jug cast by the English bronze founder and bearing his mark. Virtually unknown until its recent sale, the jug gives scholars the important opportunity to research into Medieval metalworking skills and expertise.
| Luton • Bedfordshire • England |  |
| Places within Luton Barnfield | Biscot | Bramingham | Bury Park | Bushmead | Challney | Crawley Green | Farley Hill | Dallow | High Town | Hockwell Ring | Leagrave | Lewsey | Limbury-cum-Biscot | Marsh Farm | New Town | Putteridge | Round Green | Stopsley | Sundon Park | Warden Hills | Wigmore |
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| Ammenities Kenilworth Road | Luton Museum | Stockwood Park | Wardown Park | Waulud's Bank |
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| Education Barnfield College | Denbigh High School | University of Bedfordshire | Luton Sixth Form College | South Luton High School |
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