Beck Isle Museum: Lego, Bayko, life-sized paintings and historic Kodak cameras among exhibits at site documenting social history of Pickering

There is plenty to catch your eye at Beck Isle Museum in Pickering – from historic cameras to military uniforms and even sporting memorabilia from a pioneering female cricketer.

The social history museum, whose exhibits focus on items of interest linked to Pickering and surrounding areas, has been open since 1967 but was among the many visitor attractions impacted by Covid lockdowns.

The venue was closed for a year and collections manager Sarah Maultby says visitor numbers are yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels although every effort is being made to get more tourists and locals through the door.

Last year the museum put on a series of music nights in its courtyard, with the events returning this summer.

It is currently running an exhibition called It’s a Small World between now and October which takes a closer look at models and model makers.

It covers everything from steam engines, fairground rides and dolls houses created from scratch to Meccano, Lego and their predecessor Bayko.

Sarah says it is fascinating to see the contrast between 1970s Lego and its modern-day equivalent.

"Now the building instructions are a lot more regimented whereas with the older ones you had to a lot more work,” she says.

Other notable attractions at the site include two life-size paintings of Welsh Guardsmen created by Rex Whistler, who served in the Guards during the Second World War. During Christmas 1943, his battalion put on a party for the children of Pickering in an event attended by almost 300 of them.

Sarah says the paintings have been with the museum for decades but have only recently been moved to a more prominent position by a staircase.

Other items in the museum include sets of Kodak cameras from the early 1900s as well as cricket kit belonging to local woman Olive ‘Polly’ Marshall, who played for Yorkshire and England in the 1950s and 1960s and was granted the Freedom of Pickering.

Sarah says the variety of the museum ties in with what she likes best about her job. “It is looking through the collections and finding out about the objects and the stories behind them.”