VOLUNTEERS are working round the clock to create new exhibitions and displays in time for the reopening of The Museum of North Craven Life on Tuesday.

Based at The Folly, Settle, the museum will host two exhibitions - one telling the story of the potteries in Burton-in-Lonsdale and the other continuing last year's World War One theme.

Burton's first kilns were fired up in the mid 18th century and it is thought that roaming potters from Staffordshire were drawn by the clay drifts along the banks of the river Greta. Workable seams of coal and plenty of running water made Burton an ideal site.

Everyone around Burton became involved and large quantities of useful earthenware such as jars for local stores, cream pots, breadmaking bowls, jugs and bottles found a ready market.

Local farmers added clay excavation to their skills, while 'wanderers' wove baskets to protect the large jars and bottles in transit, with orders coming from the Isle of Man and Ireland.

The Community Skills exhibition will showcase around 60 pots from the museum’s collection - the largest in Yorkshire - including higher quality stoneware and novelties such as puzzle jugs.

The second exhibition, Reality Hits Home, focuses on the First World War and contrasts the frontline experiences of the volunteers with life at home where people stumbled through pitch dark streets, fearful for the first time of enemy attack from the skies.

Stories of courage and invention in the face of war shine out.

One involves the Rev Theodore Bayley Hardy, an army chaplain from Bentham, who was the most highly decorated non-combatant in the Great War. His heroism in treating the wounded in the trenches at the Third and Fourth battles of Ypres, in 1917 and 1918, won him the the DSO, the Military Cross and the Victoria Cross. He was killed in October 1918, aged 54.

And there is the story of Bertram Lambert, the Settle-born inventor of the gas respirator, which saved numerous lives during the conflict.

A full programme of expert talks will uncover the history behind the exhibitions and reveal other aspects of past lives.

Tickets are already on sale for Nigel Mussett’s look at 19th century occupations in Settle, Strippers, Ostlers and Gentlemen on Saturday, April 18, while in May, June and July, further evening talks will bring to life Theodore Hardy, Bertram Lambert and that last potter of Burton.

For more information, call 01729 822854, email curator@ncbpt.org.uk or visit ncbpt.org.uk/folly