The Stewart Museum (Burnby Hall)

The Stewart Museum at Burnby Hall in Pocklington, East Yorkshire, is a fascinating and somewhat surprising discovery in this quiet market town on the edge of the Yorkshire Wolds. The museum is dedicated to Major Percy Mark Stewart (1871–1962), a remarkable Edwardian sportsman and world traveller whose extraordinary journeys took him to every corner of the globe over a period of several decades in the early 20th century.

Major Stewart was by any measure an extraordinary figure. A wealthy gentleman of independent means, he embarked on a series of round-the-world expeditions primarily motivated by big game hunting and the collection of natural history specimens, cultural artefacts and sporting trophies. His travels took him to Africa, India, the Americas, the Pacific and many other regions, and he returned from each expedition with remarkable collections that now form the core of the museum's holdings.

The museum displays Stewart's extensive collections in a series of rooms within Burnby Hall, the Edwardian villa that was his home. Natural history specimens including taxidermied big game trophies, mounted fish and other wildlife displays sit alongside ethnographic collections — weapons, tools, clothing, ceremonial objects and personal items acquired during his journeys through indigenous communities across the globe. Sporting memorabilia including golf trophies and fishing records add a further personal dimension to the collections.

However, it is Stewart's greatest legacy that draws most visitors to Burnby Hall. Before his death he created two lakes in the grounds of the hall and filled them with water lilies, eventually building a collection of extraordinary range and quality. These lakes now hold the National Collection of Hardy Water Lilies, designated by the Royal Horticultural Society, and during the summer flowering season — typically July and August — they are simply breathtaking. Over 100 varieties of hardy water lily flower simultaneously across the two Victorian lakes, creating a spectacle of colour, scent and tranquillity that rivals anything of its kind in Britain.

The wider Burnby Hall Gardens, maintained by the Pocklington Town Council which administers the estate, extend to eight acres of beautifully kept parkland, herbaceous borders, rose gardens, topiary and woodland walks that provide a magnificent setting for both the museum and the famous water lily lakes.