The Ransome Room

The Museum of Lakeland Life & Industry

Abbot Hall, Kendal, Cumbria



The Museum of Lakeland Life & Industry, located in Abbot Hall in Kendal, offers a number of galleries and exhibitions devoted to the Lakeland.

Of particular interest to Ransome fans is the Arthur Ransome Room, a gallery devoted to Arthur Ransome.





Among items on view is Ransome's own desk, including his typewriter, pipes, and many of his favorite souvenirs.





A large display cabinet, seen to the left in the picture of the room at the top of this page, includes a variety of burgees and other objects that belonged to Ransome, amongst them the few featured in this picture: a model of Scarab, a 1946 calendar made for Ransome by a fan, a compass, and a Jolly Roger.


In addition, you can see some of Ransome's sketch books, pen and ink illustrations for his stories, and many books he owned or authored including international editions of his works featured in Robert Thompson's Ransome's Foreign Legion. (The Museum has several of Ransome's sketch books and many illustrations, and a selection of these are on view in the Ransome Room.)

The Museum of Lakeland Life and Industry is part of the Lakeland Arts Trust, which also administers the Windermere Jetty (formerly the Windermere Steamboat Museum), due to open in 2017. Among the boats on view at the Jetty will be TSSY Esperance, part of the permanent collection and a major source for Captain Flint's Houseboat in the Swallows and Amazons series.

Abbot Hall is also the home of The Arthur Ransome Society. All Things Ransome is not affiliated with or a part of The Arthur Ransome Society.


The photographs of the Ransome Room are courtesy of the Museum of Lakeland Life and Industry, and used with permission.


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