In an early 20C pavilion, once used as Matlock Bath town hall, stands this museum devoted to one of the oldest industries in the region: lead mining.

A number of architects, all of whom worked in the neo-Classical style, contributed to Curzon's family seat, starting with Matthew Brettingham who designed the Palladian mansion, James Paine who built the north front and Robert Adam who added the south front and the interior decoration from 1560. The rooms centre on the Marble Hall. The brightly coloured Drawing Room is the work of Adam. Note the 19m-high dome above the rotunda. In the Ante Room and Dressing Room are works by 17C and 18C masters.

The 20 ha of the open-air museum at Blists Hill transport the visitor to a working community of the 1890s, with a bank, pub, butchers, mine and candlemakers. You can also see the canal incline for leading boats from Blists Hill to the Severn and Coalport. Many buildings come from other sites and have been rebuilt here.

The town museum houses one of the finest ceramics collections in the Potteries, starting with English pottery from around 1350, through the early days of earthenware as an English art (Charles II's service by Thomas Toft), to the glorious years of the 18C and the prosperous 19C (Minton's bone china vases), finishing with Clarice Cliff's Art Deco follies, the modern studio movement and some examples of current industrial production.