About
Bakewell Old House Museum occupies one of the oldest domestic buildings in Derbyshire — a remarkably preserved Tudor house dating from around 1534, set on Cunningham Place in the heart of Bakewell, one of the most visited towns in the Peak District. The museum presents the history of Bakewell and the surrounding Peak District through a sequence of period rooms, costume displays, domestic artefacts, and folk collections that span five centuries of local life.
The building was constructed around 1534, traditionally attributed to Richard Arkwright or one of the local gentry families, and represents a rare example of a surviving Tudor domestic building in this part of Derbyshire. Like many historic town buildings, it was later subdivided into tenements, housing multiple families in different eras, and this layered history of occupation has left traces visible in the building's fabric. The house was rescued from dereliction in the mid-20th century and opened as a museum in 1954 by the Bakewell Historical Society, whose volunteer members have maintained and operated it ever since.
The museum's period rooms are its centrepiece, each dressed to evoke a specific era from the Tudor period through to the Victorian age, using original furniture, textiles, and domestic equipment. The costume collection is particularly notable, tracing changes in dress over several centuries. Additional galleries cover local archaeology, the history of Bakewell as a market town, and the folk culture of the Peak District. Bakewell itself is famous for its eponymous pudding — the Bakewell Pudding, created accidentally in the 1860s at the White Horse Inn — and the museum provides context for the town's wider cultural history.
The museum is run entirely by volunteers and is open seasonally, typically from spring through to autumn. Despite its modest scale, it provides an intimate and authentic window into the domestic life of a Peak District town across five centuries, set within one of the most characterful historic buildings in Derbyshire.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
📅 Best Times to Visit
Quietest: Wednesday, Thursday
Busiest: Saturday, Sunday
💡 Weekday afternoons in spring or autumn. Bakewell is busy on Bank Holiday weekends — the museum itself remains quiet relative to the town centre.
💡 Visitor Tips
- This is a seasonal museum open April to October only, run by volunteers. Always check current opening days and times before making a special trip — hours can vary by year and volunteer availability.
- Combine with Haddon Hall (2.5 miles) and Chatsworth House (7 miles) for an exceptional day of Peak District heritage. Buy Haddon Hall and Chatsworth tickets in advance, especially in summer.
- The museum is a short uphill walk from Bakewell town centre via the churchyard. Park in one of the town car parks (ABC Centre or Granby Road) and walk up — street parking near the museum is very limited.
- After the museum, walk next door to All Saints' Church — one of the finest medieval churches in Derbyshire, with Saxon crosses in the churchyard that predate the Norman Conquest.
- Don't leave Bakewell without trying an authentic Bakewell Pudding from the Old Original Bakewell Pudding Shop. Note: the Bakewell Pudding is a different confection from the commercially popular Bakewell Tart — the museum's panels explain the distinction.
- Cyclists should note that Bakewell is a popular stop on the Monsal Trail, a 8.5-mile traffic-free trail through the limestone dales. Bike hire is available at Hassop Station (2 miles from Bakewell).
- The museum's volunteer guides are enthusiastic and knowledgeable about local history — ask questions freely. Their informal knowledge often adds considerably to what the display panels convey.
Highlights
The Tudor Building — c.1534
The Old House Museum itself is the principal exhibit — a rare survival of a Tudor domestic building in Derbyshire, dating from approximately 1534. The structure retains much of its original timber-framed character, with wattle-and-daub infill panels, small mullioned windows, and low beamed ceilings that create an immediate sense of the past.
The building's survival through five centuries of use — as a single dwelling, as tenements housing multiple families, and now as a museum — means that its fabric preserves layers of history from the Tudor period onwards.
The building is Grade II* listed and is considered one of the most significant historic structures in Bakewell.
Tudor and Stuart Period Rooms
The museum's period rooms recreate domestic life from the Tudor and Stuart eras, furnished with original pieces and reproduction items appropriate to the 16th and 17th centuries.
Low beamed ceilings, open fireplaces, and simple furniture evoke the lives of the prosperous Derbyshire families who first occupied the building. The rooms are interpreted with attention to authentic detail — the textiles, cooking vessels, and household tools are genuine period items where possible — giving visitors a vivid sense of daily domestic life in a Peak District market town in the centuries before industrialisation transformed the region.
Victorian Rooms and Domestic History
The later rooms in the museum trace the building's occupation through the Victorian era, when it was divided into tenements housing working-class families. These rooms are dressed with Victorian domestic equipment — kitchen ranges, washday implements, sewing materials, children's toys — that convey the realities of working-class life in a 19th-century Derbyshire town.
The contrast between the Tudor grandeur of the building's origins and the modest circumstances of its later Victorian occupants tells a compelling social history story that is central to the museum's narrative of how historic buildings change their character and function over time.
Costume Collection
The museum holds a collection of historic costume spanning several centuries, from the 18th century through to the Edwardian era.
The collection includes dresses, bonnets, waistcoats, and accessories that illustrate how fashion changed across the social spectrum in a Peak District market town. Particular strengths include examples of everyday working dress alongside more formal and decorative garments.
The costume collection is one of the hidden strengths of this small museum, and its display in the period room settings adds considerably to the atmosphere of historic authenticity that the museum creates.
Collections
The Bakewell Old House Museum's collections encompass five centuries of Peak District domestic and local history, housed within a Grade II* listed Tudor building of c. 1534. The core of the collection is the building itself, with its original fabric and period room furnishings spanning Tudor, Stuart, Georgian, and Victorian eras.
Beyond the period rooms, the museum holds costume collections covering the 18th to early 20th century, local archaeological finds from the Bakewell area and wider Peak District, and an archive of photographs, documents, and records compiled by the Bakewell Historical Society since 1954. All collections reflect the museum's commitment to recording the domestic and community life of Bakewell and its surrounding Peak District villages, with particular strength in everyday rather than elite material culture.
Tudor and Stuart Rooms
Period rooms furnished to evoke domestic life in the 16th and 17th centuries, set within the original Tudor fabric of the 1534 building. The rooms are interpreted with authentic and reproduction furnishings including textiles, cooking equipment, and household objects appropriate to Derbyshire prosperous family life of the era.
📍 Ground floor
Victorian Life
Later rooms recreating the building's use as Victorian-era tenements, furnished with domestic equipment of the period to convey working-class life in 19th-century Bakewell. Kitchen, laundry, and living-room settings illustrate how dramatically domestic life changed during the Victorian period.
📍 Upper floor
Costume Through the Centuries
Display of historic costume from the 18th to the early 20th century, illustrating changes in dress across the social scale in a Peak District market town. Particular strengths in everyday and working dress alongside formal garments.
📍 Upper floor display cases
Local History and Archaeology
Displays covering Bakewell's history as a market town from prehistoric times through to the modern era, including archaeological finds from the Peak District, documentary evidence, and photographs tracing the town's development.
📍 Ground floor gallery
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.