Nearby the widely recognisable tourist attraction of Peel’s House of Mannanan, there is a smaller, more compact museum along the harbour, dedicated to the life and times of the people of the town.
The Leece Museum, housed in a building which was once the Courthouse of Peel, is full of small displays and things of quite intimate interest, as opposed to large, grand, eye catching displays and centrepieces.
Indeed, there isn’t anything which could be called an iconic showpiece, which could be thought of as the equivalent to, say, the Peggy of the Nautical Museum or the Manx Museum’s giant elk skeleton.
What is contained within the museum, however, are small objects and items which paint a revealing picture of the general everyday life lived by the people of Peel. Artefacts which adorned shop counters and street windows, or working items that were commonplace and would have been strewn around the streets and harbours feature throughout.
One of my favourite items is the town birch. In place alongside a ‘birching stool’, and with a vivid description of how the person on the end of such a punishment was supposed to position themselves over it, the birch looks thin and unsubstantial. But when wielded by the policeman in the picture next to it, you can imagine it was anything but!
This infamous brand of punishment is still debated today, and the exhibit is worth seeing just to understand how primitive and nasty it was. Last used in the mid-1970s, and placed here within a modern setting, it is something that purely belongs in a museum.
The fishing industry plays a major part of the town’s heritage, and there are many artefacts concerning life on the harbour on display.
Alongside models of fishing trawlers, nobbies and steamers, boat name plates, such as that of the ‘Manx Clover’, hang. Although it may seem not particularly eye catching, such a name plate serves as a reminder to those who have wandered the harbour and remember such boats as working vessels.
Also, there are some examples of the infamous mollags, pig skins which have been turned inside out and inflated to be used as floats and buoys.
There are displays of medals, which are worth spending time looking at. A timely new collection which has just gone on display are the medals awarded for bravery to the crew of the PL11 Wanderer, who were the first at the scene of the tragic sinking of the RMS Lusitania in 1915.
Also, another great display is that of the Knockaloe internment camp, which was situated just up the road in Patrick.
Alongside diagrams, maps and paintings of the camp, there is a cabinet stuffed full of gorgeously carved bones. The bones were given to the internees, many of them highly creative and artistic people of their time, and were carved purely to pass the time. The intricacy and beauty of these items are a joy to see.
At the moment, the former ‘Black Hole’, a detention cell under the Courthouse, is being transformed into a motorbike showroom, which will be open and ready for Grand Prix Week. This will feature some classic machines and also some TT and MGP-winning machines.
All in all, the Leece Museum is an engrossing place, and will tell you a great deal about the immediate area.
The Leece Museum is free to enter, and open every day until 4pm.