Sir Alfred Jodrell's Shell Museum (Glandford, Norfolk, UK)

[nanila]

One of north Norfolk's little gems is the Glandford Shell Museum, a small building housing a "cabinet of curiosities" collection.

I brought my macro lens and went to town.


The handwritten labels were charming.


As were the typewritten ones. The labelling varied wildly throughout the collection, adding to its charm.














Baby puffer fish's taxidermy is the stuff of nightmares.


Or maybe it's this guy, I dunno.




















I'm not sure why the model boat builder and x-rays of shells were featured on the same shelf, but that's just how this museum rolls.


Weird stuff in glass jars, yay!






Donated by Sir Alec Guinness.



If you're ever in the village of Glandford, it's well worth the £2.50 for the price of admission.

Comments

[fauxklore]

Oooh! I love this sort of stuff.

[quoththeravyn]

I like the way the ones in the 2nd picture are on plates or bowls, which made me think they might be fancy biscuits (cookies for the yanks).

[silveradept]

That's a lot of shells being put to many interesting uses. And also random other things like a whale tooth, a ship in a bottle, and a puffer fish. Feels like exactly the sort of thing to have smalls with you while you explore, so you find all the weird things.

[st_aurafina]

I love these little museums that spring up in small towns!! There's always the most batshit things arranged in interesting ways.

Baby puffer fish's taxidermy is the stuff of nightmares.
Oof, it sure is.

[cesy]

Gorgeous!

[cmcmck]

Oh,that's fun!

[worlds_of_smoke]

oh, these sorts of places are so neat!

All the art made of seashells remind me of the little picture I made in Sunday school where I used seashells and other found nature stuff to make an image of Mt. Calvary*, with the 3 crosses.

(* Hopefully I'm remembering that name right. I mean the place where Jesus was crucified.)

[highlyeccentric]

Ooh, I love it!

[paleblinds]

Yes! We've been there, it's great.

[emelbe]

Omg. I love these.

[lorigami]

oh that is so interesting!!!!

[askygoneonfire]

Yay! This is great. The ladies made of shells, the weird shell character and the shell boxes are all vivid in my mind as holiday souvenirs and at some point I think I have owned all of them.

What a lovely curiosity that place is!

[ursajoanna]

:O We weren't allowed to take photos when we went, I'm glad they've changed the rules!

[kaberett]

Oh wonderful -- thank you for writing about it (with illustrations!).

[kaberett]

Thank you very much for sharing these -- we are delighted :)

[zasu]

Ooh! I would have thought I’d just about died and gone to heaven, especially when I was a kid, to have discovered this museum. I mean, I’d still love to go through it, but I’d have been so thrilled before! I still have a pretty big collection of shells in shelves throughout my house

[holyschist]

Oooooh what fun! I love these hodgepodgy curiosity museums full of vintage labels and weird art pieces mixed in. Thanks for sharing the photos!

[jesse_the_k]

Thanks so much for offering us a peak in.