We often get asked the question: what’s your favourite item in the collection?

It’s not an easy one to answer. There are over 30,000 objects in our museum collection alone, representing over 300 years. In fact, together with our Library and Archives it’s such a unique collection that we have Designated Outstanding status from Arts Council England, which means it’s considered of national importance.

So, how could we possibly choose one thing as a favourite? Well, we’ve decided to ask our collections team individually what their five personal favourites are. Not what’s most important or most valuable to freemasonry; rather what they like for their own reasons.

To kick this off we have Museum Curator Mark Dennis telling us about the Barraclough clock – a wonderful grandfather clock associated with the early days of organised freemasonry in England and the Brontë family believe it or not.

He’s followed this up with a curious little fellow we call 'scare bear'. Just what is scare bear? Well now you can watch our short videos to find out!

We’ll be hearing more from Mark and the rest of the team over the coming months.