A LOT can happen in a year – and 2016 was no exception for Ambleside’s Armitt Museum, after Storm Desmond sent a wall of flood water sweeping through the ground floor gallery in December 2015, writes JANE RENOUF.

Yet every cloud has a silver lining, and the museum’s enforced closure for three months inspired staff, trustees and volunteers to take stock of things while walls were repainted, new vinyl laminate flooring laid, and the museum’s secure room reorganised to give extra protection to its precious contents. Improvements included an attractive new layout in the gallery to greet visitors in spring, since when visitor numbers have risen considerably, encouraging the museum to face 2017 with fresh optimism.

Just in case of further storms, a permanent wall of sandbags now diverts any floodwater away from the building. This and other improvements are thanks to generous funding from Cumbria Community Foundation, the Business Hub and Ambleside Civic Trust.

The Armitt’s wish list for 2017 is ambitious, if nothing else. Top of the list is to acquire more gallery space to display its treasures. New flood doors are also needed at the front and side of the building and the shopping list also includes the purchase of two Kurt Schwitters collages, with grant applications to the V & A and the Art Fund. Schwitters, who settled in Ambleside at the end of World War Two, was a pioneer of avant-garde art in Germany, and the Armitt’s growing Schwitters collection is now the UK’s largest display of his work.

The museum’s greatest need is for extra gallery space to display its expanding collections, particularly of early photography - and the answer could be right on the Armitt’s doorstep: “The most obvious and desirable solution is to use Low Nook, the building next door to us, which belongs to the university,” curator Deborah Walsh explained. “It is a historically important building of great character and we are convinced we could make it work as part of the museum, at the same time as caring for the building. Floor plans from the 1940s show the layout before the inclusion of the present modern partitions. These could easily be removed to reveal the original plan and provide precious gallery space. The university knows where our ambitions lie and we hope they will talk to us further in 2017.”

Early portrait photography will also be the feature of this summer’s exhibition Still Lives, drawn from the work of the Brunskill brothers who set up a studio in Bowness in the late 1860s. It will include portraits of local people and visitors to the area, and it is hoped that many will be displayed on posters around Ambleside, particularly in places which can be connected with the portraits. The old glass plates from the Brunskills’ studio in Bowness provide a fascinating snapshot of life itself, in the way that individuals chose props and backdrops to produce the social image they wished to create, from backgrounds of grand castles or ruined abbeys to Alpine scenery.

Important everyday artefacts are donated almost daily to the Armitt’s expanding collection, the latest collection being Cumbria Amenity Trust Mining History Society’s records of mine plans, accounts and even explosives books. The library includes an important collection of early guide books as well as housing the Fell and Rock Climbing Club’s collections - and so much more besides. In fact, Armitt member Beatrix Potter herself would surely give a nod of approval to Image and Reality, the museum’s permanent display of her life and work, and to all the other objects, letters, books, photographs and fascinating memorabilia reflecting the unique heritage of Ambleside since Roman times.

As a professional historian and archaeologist born in Kendal, Deborah was well and truly grounded in Cumbrian history right from the tender age of eight, when she first started to collect ‘interesting objects’ that her grandfather, an agricultural contractor, left in the shed. Educated at Queen Katherine School, she subsequently did degrees in medieval history and archaeology at Queen’s University Belfast and Sheffield and her career has encompassed both:

“My background in archaeology and historic building recording complements my work at the Armitt, since I became its curator in 2009. It’s has been a challenge, but a good one, through which I’ve learned a great deal and like many others, developed a very strong attachment to the Armitt.”

The Armitt's winter opening hours until March are Tuesday-Saturday, 10.30am-4.30pm (last admission 4pm).

For further information telephone 015394-31212.