14-16 Kirkgate, Thirsk, North Yorkshire YO7 1PQ

01845 527707

For the 2008 season, we have updated our Victorian Kitchen and added three new displays:

• The Victorian Kitchen
  We’ve given a bright new look to our Victorian Kitchen, with the table set as for home baking day.
• B. Smith’s tailoring and dressmaking store
  Our new costume display in the Shops Room features this celebrated store (see picture).
• Mountmellick embroidery
  We have a feature on Mountmellick embroidery, which had its origins in Ireland where it was devised by a Quaker lady who taught it to poor families as a means of earning a living.
• “Cobbler, Cobbler, mend my shoe...”
  This is our new front window display of shoemaking tools once used by some of the twenty or so craftsmen working in and around the town.

B. Smith & Sons, circa 1890

This firm claimed to have been trading in Thirsk since 1580, and it remained in business until the 1960s. The premises in the Market Place were eventually demolished in the 1970s.

Home Front Thirsk invites you to step back in time to the Second World War. This latest web site from Thirsk Museum brings together a fascinating collection of wartime objects, photographs and documents, all relating to the people of Thirsk and its surrounding villages.

Many of the exhibits are unique to the local area. All are clearly illustrated and described, often with a choice of views and links to related items. The site has been designed to be easy to use - you can go directly to your chosen exhibit or just browse through one of the ‘themes’. As well as Civil Defence, Civilian Life and Military Life, there are special themes for the Home Guard and Prisoners-of-War, both of whom played important parts in the lives of local people.

Whether you are studying the Second World War or you lived in or around Thirsk during the war years, you’ll find something of interest for all ages. See for yourself at www.homefrontthirsk.org.uk.