TravelTrekker

Free to enter, brilliant often overlooked venue. There's enough to keep you there for an hour or two, but not so much to overwhelm. One of the highlights is the Egyptian mummy and artefacts, and fantastic examples of weaving/spinning machines that pay homage to our leaders of the industrial revolution history. Of course, there are some great artworks in the art gallery upstairs where they also set up easels where visitors are free to draw on!

An absolutely fantastic hour spent looking at the history of Blackburn as well as some natural history and Egyptian artefacts. All very well presented in a clean environment. The staff are friendly and very helpful with any questions. Photography is allowed with no flashes which isn't a problem as most things are well lit. Free to enter but a donation station is there on the way out. All in all, a solid 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.

Such a nice way to spend a few hours on a rainy day.. amazing taxidermy! Beautiful art and interesting displays.. all FREE Very intriguing Egyptian display with its own authentic mummy !

We popped in on a whim while visiting Blackburn with my niece who will be working here soon. None of us have been to the town before and we all enjoyed exploring and looking around the museum - which is totally free! Our history lessons flooded back seeing the Spinning Jenny and other exhibits and we had a great chat with Richard about his memories of working in the mills. He showed us a video and books too - he made it all come alive, I honestly could have listened to him for hours. It was only supposed to be a quick visit before lunch and I truly hope you have Richard's memories recorded for everyone to enjoy and learn from, we were just lucky to visit on one of the days that he's there. Highly recommend popping in and having a look at all the exhibits, whether you're a local or just visiting.

Always good to visit this museum, lots of different items, animals birds there's always something interesting for all ages, worth visiting.

A surprising little gem in Blackburn Town centre nr the Town Hall. 2 floors with the art gallery upstairs. On the ground floor there's a large collection of old spinning machines and loom's which became even more interesting when the Room Steward began to explain their background and history, especially since he had worked assembling them years ago. There's a small costume section, some stuffed birds, an Egyptian section with a mummy and a mummified head, but the best part, in my opinion obviously, was the art gallery with the biggest collection of donated wood prints by the famous master Japanese Ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Hiroshige from 19th century, including the Great Wave and Red Fuji. It's just a pity that there's no cafe serving coffee and cake or little shop selling copies of some of the paintings made into greeting cards, I would have liked to buy a few.