All teeth and claws

 The Lost Cats of Derbyshire
a new project, public events and a wonderful procession

cave lion skull in Buxton Museum

Once upon a time, big cats roamed the hills round Buxton. Scimitar-toothed cats* (Victory Quarry, Dove Holes) were here when humans wandered into the Peaks about 30,000 years ago, while cave lions lingered until about 12,000 years ago, (Hindlow Cave, near Earl Sterndale). Lynx loitered longer than anyone realised and might have been prowling Scottish forests into this millennium. Then there are our domestic moggies now, offering affection and purrs and sometimes causing chaos among our small birds and mammals

And, of course, at the moment, we have Mysterious Big Cats being reported like shadowy ghosts from across the county!

 

We’re celebrating cats! Especially the Lost Cats of our hills, cats who knew this land in different climates, with warmer– or colder – days and using their stories to look at the world around us as it changes again

 

cave lion reconstruction

As part of the Our Street programme with Buxton’s Heritage Action Zone, Buxton Museum and Art Gallery are bringing these lost cats back to the town. We’ll look at the animals that used to live here, reflecting on their lives as climates changed and wondering what they might make of our modern world and how our cats will respond to current climate changes. Connecting with the Art Fund’s The Wild Escape initiative, this project will use museum collections (we have amazing fossils and bones in Buxton Museum) to inspire people to reach out from those Museums and explore the world around us in new ways

 

Homotherium reconstruction

A partnership between the Museum, and Our Street, Lost Cats will draw together other local groups as well. Buxton Civic Association, the Babbling Vagabonds, Stone and Water and ourselves here at Creeping Toad are all involved. There will be a programme of events encouraging public participation. As the project develops further, there might be art exhibitions, origami cat workshops and a mysterious cat trail along Spring Gardens with the Our Street Youth Board. 

 

Events will be posted on the Museum, Creeping Toad and Stone and Water blogs and through the social media of all the partners (links below)

 

Getting started

drawing a tiger's eye

Big Cats: Big Pictures: our first event on Thursday January 5^th at Buxton Museum and Art Gallery….details to follow. This will be a free event, inviting people to look at the Collection’s fossils and bones, handle models, sketch, draw, colour and while we can’t do lifesize pictures of scimitar-toothed cats, we can probably manage a picture as big as a cave lion’s face….

 

Look out for:

• Another event on Thursday 23^rd February
• d-i-y guide to making your own Big Cat Puppet to join the procession
• more events in March and April
• workshops for local schools

 

All this activity, will build up to a procession, the Carnival of the Cats on Earth Day, Saturday 22^nd April 2023. A parade of big cats, small cats, cat-masked children, ancient ghost cat puppets will prowl along Spring Gardens and into Pavilion Gardens.There in the gardens, we’ll invite people to bring along their own snacks for a Kitty-cat Picnic (what would you bring for such a picnic? Mouse-shaped cakes? Sabre-tooth baguettes? Crunchy cat claws?). 

 

From museum displays, through the shopping streets of our town and into the Gardens that grow in the heart of Buxton, we’ll bring lost cats, forgotten cats, modern cats and maybe even future felines and have a celebration of the wildlife of Derbyshire.

 

*Our cats are Homotherium: their teeth aren't as big as those of "sabre-tooth" cats so they are usually labelled scimitars!

Images: 

• photos are from Buxton Museum and Art Gallery's collection
• "Tiger's eye" and "scribbled lion" are by Gordon MacLellan
• Cave lion and Homotherium reconstructions are from online sources with thanks and apologies to the artists responsible