Bowes Museum

I had not visited the inside (as against the grounds where we go each December for the excellent Barnard Castle Christmas market) of Bowes Museum for ages, and then I had been encumbered by two young daughters who needed most of my attention to keep them engaged and out of mischief (I think a children’s treasure hunt fact sheet may have been involved), but today, attracted by the ‘Shafts of Light’ exhibition of miners’ art, I was able to give my full concentration not only to the featured work of Norman Cornish and his like, but also the permanent collection in the picture gallery, which includes a couple of Canaletto’s, a Turner and an El Greco; I had to browse the rest of the stuff (silver, ceramics, furniture, fashion, textiles, and toys, some of the latter worryingly familiar) quite quickly, but did linger to take a close look at the iconic (literally - it is the museums logo) Silver Swan, an eighteenth century working automaton, and then lingered a little longer in the comfortable café over tea and scones.