Learning
From school visits, to home educating groups, find out about our growing learning offer here
Who runs the Powell-Cotton Museum, Quex House and Gardens?
The Powell-Cotton Museum, Quex House and Gardens is governed by the Powell-Cotton Trust (registered charity no.1167318). The Trust has been in existence since 1926, although the Museum opened to the public a number of years before this.
The Trust is a separate organisation to that of Quex Park Estates Company, who operates the wider Quex Park land, and while we work closely together, they are governed by different boards and priorities.
See ‘How is the Museum Linked to Quex Park’ and ‘What is the collection used for.’
What is the Museum?
The venue has three connected spaces as part of visitor experience. The Museum buildings which house the collection; rooms that are open to the public as part of guided tours within Quex House, the family home of the Powell-Cottons since the current House was built in 1822; and Quex Gardens, which is found at the back of Quex House. Each have their own identity and stories to tell but all are connected to offer a broader visitor experience.
We refer to the venue and experience (the Museum, House and Gardens) collectively as the ‘Museum’.
Is the Museum linked to Baden-Powell? Is the Museum about the cotton industry?
Despite the similar name, the Powell-Cotton Museum is not linked to Lord Robert Baden-Powell, who was the founder of the Scout movement. We are also not a museum about the cotton industry.
The Museum is named after its founder, Major Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton (1866-1940).
See ‘How did the Museum collect/acquire the items?’ and ‘What is the collection used for?’
How is the Museum linked to Quex Park?
Quex Park is the physical location and home of the Museum. The Museum is found in the centre of the wider 250-acre park. The land surrounding the Museum is operated by Quex Park Estate Company, with the Museum footprint, half of the house, and Quex Gardens, owned and operated by the Powell-Cotton Trust. See ‘Who runs the Powell-Cotton Museum, Quex House and Gardens?’
The area known to the public as Quex Park, was once the grounds of Quex House.
Further information about the History of Quex can be found on the Quex Park website.
While the Powell-Cotton Trust and Quex Park Estates Company work closely together, they are governed by different boards and priorities. Other businesses with Quex Park are also operated separately and through different governing bodies. We all work together to ensure visitors to Quex Park have an enjoyable experience.
How did the Museum collect/acquire the items?
Major Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton (1866-1940) was the main collector of the Museum’s artefacts. He gained his love of collecting during his first World Trip in 1889 when he visited Japan and purchased various trinkets and souvenirs, many of which can be viewed in Gallery 7. His travels to Asia inspired the style and décor for many areas of his home, Quex House, as can be seen in the Drawing Room.
In the Victorian period, it was tradition for wealthy gentlemen of Percy’s class to attend safaris and hunt. Percy’s first hunting trip was to Kashmir in India. A number of these animals can now be found on display in our Kashmir Diorama in Gallery 2. Later trips to East Africa included not only hunting of animals but acquiring items from the local communities and people he met and lived with during his trips.
The Museum also contains the collections of two of Powell-Cotton’s daughters, Diana and Antoinette Powell-Cotton, who joined their father on two trips to Angola, some of which can be viewed in Gallery 5.
What is the collection used for?
A fundamental purpose of the collection, and the Trust, is to support learning and enjoyment.The purpose of the Powell-Cotton Trust is set out in our Charity Constitution: “The charity’s objects are to advance education for the benefit of the public by:
– the provision and maintenance of a museum in or near Birchington for exhibiting specimens of natural history and ethnography (particularly such specimens collection by Percy Horace Gordon Powell Cotton, Esq,) and, if the Trustees think fit, specimens of other sciences and of the fine and useful arts (the Museum),
– the extension and enhancement, conservation, storage and maintenance of the collection of specimens belonging to the Museum, and
– the promotion of education in subjects relevant to the specimens belonging to the Museum and the use of such specimens in research.”
We use the collection to improve our understanding, sample and study the natural world, answering scientific questions and preserving evidence for current and future use. Not only do we explore the natural world, the collection provides us with insight into the people and communities who Percy came into contact with during his expeditions.
In recent years we have added to our knowledge of Percy as the creator of the Museum, through partnership projects with communities from which the collections originated. There is a lot of traditional knowledge from Percy’s conversations with local people recorded in his diaries which enrich the information about the artifacts both on display and in the reserve collections. Bringing in these voices from interactions he had with people in Africa and Asia as he created his amazing collection, found in his notebooks and from speaking to contemporary communities, allows us to tell even richer stories, and ones that have until recently, not been told.
Why doesn’t the Powell-Cotton family live in Quex House anymore?
Half of Quex House is occupied by the Powell-Cotton Trust. Many of these rooms are open to the public as part of our House Tours but are not lived in. Through our popular House Tours, we explore the history of Percy as a family-man, an employer, his life at home, his military history, and his role within Birchington.
A direct descendant of Percy lives on the Estate and members of the family often reside in the private half of the mansion house.
