As part of my birthday week celebrations (what do you mean birthdays are only one day?!?), we have taken a mid-week break from our regular toil and are visiting Skipton and the Dales.

Although I’ve visited the town before, I’ve somehow never made it into the delightful Craven* Museum before.

This is a shame on at least two fronts because firstly, this is a fact filled and fabulous celebration of this ancient town, with 60000 artifacts to appreciate.

And secondly because IT HAS ONE OF SHAKESPEARES FIRST FOLIOS AND I’VE ONLY JUST REALISED!

‘Along with the King James Bible, the Folio is the most important volume in English that exists… and one of them is here in North Yorkshire.

And yes, that gives me an enormous amount of pride and satisfaction.’

Sir Patrick Stewart, 2011

Our national treasure:

Shakespeare’s

First Folio

Around 750 copies of William Shakespeare’s First Folio were published in 1623, seven years after his death.

Today, about 235 have so far been found worldwide.

Not all of Shakespeare’s plays had been published during his lifetime. Eighteen of them only survive as part of the First Folio. A complete copy contains thirty-six plays, but many remaining First Folios have missing pages.

This First Folio belonged to local businessman John James Wilkinson. His family owned Primrose Mill in Embsay, along with tobacconists and grocers’ shops. John was also a noted scientist and an amateur playwright, co-writing a play about Skipton. When John died, he left his First Folio to his sister, Ann. She bequeathed it to the museum in 1936.

This First Folio lacks its introductory pages and all of the comedies. At first, people thought Wilkinson’s copy was a Second Folio dating from 1632. To our surprise, in 2003 Shakespeare expert Dr Anthony West identified it as a true First Folio.

From the exhibition

Also, there was this which was just nifty!

*Colin Craven from The Secret Garden – only think I could think of till I said it out loud.