Monthly Archives: September 2025

Talks & Tours

We always welcome invitations from organisations for outreach speakers in addition to guided tours. The The groups which we have visited or have brought groups to the Museum are varied and have included heritage, civic society and amenity organisations, as well as U3A, WEA and WI groups.

Topics can include The Wilderspin Story (who was this self-styled “inventor” and promoter of infant education and what did he do?), The Barton Church School (saving the school building and the restoration project or the origins of the School using the archive records) and The Teacher is Abroad in the Land (accompanying our latest exhibition, Travels & Travails about the fascinating journeys of Wilderspin in the early 1800s).

Please give us a ring on (01652) 635172 to email bookings4wilderspinschool@gmail.com for more details.

Travels and Travails

In 1825 Samuel Wilderspin undertook his first road-trip promoting infant schools in villages, towns and cities across the nation. The 800 mile roundtrip set the pattern of things to come over the next 20 years. Based on his own accounts, this exhibition highlights the challenges of lone travel across the British Isles just as the railway age was dawning. It’s a unique story of ambition and endurance.