The cabinet of curiosities is tremendous: a bit scary, impossible to take in on one visit, and a super little film (which is not permanently on a loop, thankfully). Elsewhere, the linking of past, present, future is imaginative use of museum space. And the restaurant has very good food, with a stunning view and exceptional prices.

Free parking and entrance . Modernized to a very high standard . We loved the cabinet of curiosities room . Great for all ages . Lovely cafe .

Miss the old cafe team! Not very friendly staff. We renewed our vows here in 2019 and couldn’t praise it enough then. Arrived today with my two children and met by a very abrupt response - don’t serve until 11am clearly not keen for us to stick around for half an hour. Walked off while I was still standing there. All fancy but none of the warmth and friendliness the place used to have in the cafe. The gift shop and other Museum staff still seem very friendly though.

Interesting museum in former Mill owner's House that dates from 1840.

Nice museum, very well done and lots to look at, super cafe, very friendly and helpful staff. Well recommended day out for the whole family.

Smallest cups of white coffee I’ve ever been served and they weren’t even warm. At 2pm on Wednesday afternoon the only cake they had was lemon drizzle. We paid over £23 for 2 barely warm coffees, 2 children’s drinks and 4 slices of drizzle cake. Won’t be going back for coffee

Really pretty museum with contemporary pieces. Very small though so doesn’t take too long to walk around. Cafe is a bit over priced and took a while to get a coffee.

Great local museum and art gallery, in a lovely old mill owners house, set in a small park. The bar/cafe/restaurant is very good, with an interesting menu and nice views across the valley. Lots of events are held here. I've been to a few films, which are shown once a month. It's all run by a social enterprise and has a lovely positive buzz about it.

Amazing gallery and museum, loved the cabinet of curiosities exhibition

Nice museum 😊 Lovely staff 👍🏻

Called for lunch shown to a table given menu's waitress asked if we needed a glass of water and dissapeard 35 minutes later so did we.

Limited menu and quite expensive for what it is. We decided on a light main (soup - they only had one serving left at 12.30 on a Friday lunchtime) and a cake. The scones were frozen, rock hard. I would have thought that they should have been fresh, as in freshly baked. Won't be back, sorry

Great visit to the Bar & Kitchen today. Booked a table for 4, service really quick and friendly , food amazing. Thank you

Amazing place. Worth going just to see the restoration of the house, so beautiful. Great exhibits, the curiosities room was fabulous and my little girl loved the stuffed creatures. She also did some crafts with the lovely staff also. The staff were superb and a credit to the establishment. Will be back!

Visited today on my own with my two extremely well behaved Border Terriers. Had breakfast outside then wanted to pop in the shop to buy a vinyl LP, nothing about Dogs not being allowed on the entrance / doors. I was stopped by a lady that abruptly said “you can’t come in here with them”, I felt really insulted for my beloved Pets. We take our Boys everywhere with us, more & more businesses have woken up to smell the coffee & realised there’s money to be made from making their businesses Dog friendly. Whitaker, you are in a rural setting, perfect for Dog walkers, you need to change your attitude. Andrew (Rossendale Resident)

Booked a table inside but it was a sunny day and took the dog, it was no trouble to change to outdoor seating - covered or uncovered. The order was taken promptly and the food came in very good time. The portions were huge and very very nice, well cooked and well presented.

Lovely walk around the park and visited the museum and restaurant.

Absolutely excellent gallery with a wide variety of diverse and stimulating artworks, all set in beautiful grounds. Had a really enjoyable afternoon and look forward to visiting again soon!

A wonderful museum and art gallery. From 6 to 66 we enjoyed this, small but interesting and the cafe is excellent! The room of curiosities was a hit byallas was the children's trail

What an amazing place to visit, the cafe is excellent we had the Sunday roast it was perfect, juicy beef, roast spuds, lots of veg and the best Yorkshire puddings also extra gravy. We also had a look at the art gallery, i highly recomend the room of curiosity. The grounds are lovely and very nice to walk around, lots of picnic benches.

Lovely modernised building and grounds. It's a great place for artifacts of the local area. History and art displays. Food and drink available. Toilets. Good amount of parking and an incredible edible garden that explains how to use the herbs and plants they have for all to benefit from.

Lovely museum with a variety of exhibitions. We went to see a great film there and it was a lovely evening. The staff were really friendly and welcoming Thanks very much.

Fantastic food and fantastic staff in the restaurant. In the museum and art gallery there is an interesting range of exhibitions and exhibits. The reception volunteers are very welcoming as are the volunteers in the gift shop Film nights show some excellent films and have knowledgeable staff on hand to give you the background to the film and the country of origin Overall the Whitaker provides a positive experience and a valuable resource to the valley.

Everything a local museum should be and more! Varied, engaging and thoughtful displays, nice cafe, friendly staff..just great!

Located in the Whitaker Park Rawtenstall. Small but interesting museum of local history, art and curiosities. the park offers some good views across the Rossendale valley. It also has a small cafeteria which is now supplying take away picnics for the park.

We visited today and had the 3 tapas which was ok , disappointed with the chorizo it was warm and we didn’t get serving plates with the food. . The toilets were dirty. I think if I used them first I wouldn’t have ordered food.

I love this park, there’s lots to do for children from foraging to the actual park itself and the walk round the beautifully maintained nature park. It’s a regular place for our family to visit, we love it!

Lovely little museum with nice cafe/ restaurant and friendly staff

This was a great find. A small museum in an old house, with a VERY eclectic collection of exhibits. On the ground floor the main attractions are the 19th century taxidermy collection, and the Room of Curiosities which is spooky, strange, eye catching, amazing, and distressing in almost equal measure. There was also a room with a contemporary conceptual artist's work, which I am usually not a fan of, but this was very well thought out and constructed. Upstairs they host local contemporary artists' exhibitions. On this visit it was a joint exhibition of three wonderful female artists' works - a painter, a textile artist, and a poet. It was a fantastic grouping, each enhanced the others' work so that the overall effect was greater than would have been the case individually.

It was a lovely occasion. Very well planned and organised. Wonderful venue. Vast amount of volunteers, all doing a great job. Wonderful atmosphere and everyone seemed really happy. Proud to be a part of the ukulele group contributing to the happiness!

Fabulous time, lunch was good, staff great. The museum was fantastic, lovely to see items from my childhood and love the way it's set out. The great grandchildren absolutely loved it as did we.

A great local museum. Just the right mix of family friendly, fascinating history, local pride, weird Victorian taxidermy and the down-right odd. Highly recommend!

Went here for breakfast with the kids. Very small menu and quite expensive for what was served. Bacon roll was 4.25 and only had 2 dry bits of bacon on a dry roll. Staff were friendly and place was clean, but could definitely be better for breakfast options.

Just an awful, awful restaurant. Food was served cold and was given dirty looks when asked for it to be heated. Couldn’t remember who had what when bringing it back out. Made to feel like the problem when trying to get this resolved. Particularly pathetic when you consider that this was Sunday lunch and only two meats were picked by the six of us so essentially the same food being prepared for all. Not cheap either. Avoid.

I really enjoyed the museum very interesting for adults and children . The staff are very pleasant.It us free admission . The cafe is lovely, but way overpriced . Nearly £12 for a burger 🍔 decided to treat myself and had 40 min wait for a very over cooked dry burger .My husband had feta lentil salad also £12 for a very small offering, 99p burger at Maccys was much better . If I had a young family I wouldn't pay these prices.

Great building but I’d never ever rent a property managed by The Windsor. I’d rather join Seattle’s homeless population over dealing with them.

A wonderful and very interesting museum. Already looking forward to visiting again.

Good mix of local history and art exhibition. New restaurant serves good food

Excellent museum with some great historical artefacts, with Art gallery. The restaurant is an added bonus, friendly staff, good choice of dishes, good coffee, regular bar and prompt service. Contact free payment facility. Excellent views of Calder valley from the cafe on a sunny day!

Excellent little museum and gallery. It's very welcoming and has an interesting permanent collection and well chosen visiting exhibitions. It's a place I have loved for years and worried that it's recent refurb would strip the heart out of it. But not at all. A good place for adults and children. And a nice café!

This used to be the Sunday Lunch I most recommended, meat cooked to perfection, fab Yorkies, piping hot, veg selection and gravy to die for....not anymore! Food just warm, which had been obviously sitting around for ages (ironically just like us) & nowhere close to the standard it was, where is that fabulous gravy?!! Very slow service even though staff were stood around chatting, we felt ignored. Then to be told there would be a long wait for desert....but didnt know how long, we left. Its a new modern 'cookie cutter' dining hall that you see everywhere, nothing like the warm, unique experience it used to be. Really disappointed.

Well worth visiting if you're in the area.

Was quite disappointed. Didn't feel any atmosphere, was just a new build in lovely setting. The old bar had character. Felt like a school canteen. Very disappointed

We have eaten at The Whitaker numerous times in the past and the food has been exceptional. A change in cheif has not resulted in the same quality being maintained. Unfortunately, the quality of service has also dropped. One of our party had an allergy and we were the chosen dish was okay but after pressing we were then told it was not. These mistakes should not happen. The food was nothing average but not outstanding as it use to be. My meal was covered in sea salt, so much so I could not eat more than half. We were not asked if everything was okay and when we did get service and I pointed it out, the others had finished and the table was simply cleared. We did not get offered deserts or more drinks and I sat and waited for 15 minutes to get the bill. None of the items on the menu marked vegan were actually vegan and the managers response to being told all of this was, "not much I can do now but we have a new menu coming next week. Such a shame as it has a nice atmosphere.

Great staff supporting young people.

Lovely meal served by friendly people , can recommend it ,we will be back

Really nice place for lunch. Great chips!

Lovely place and Free the coffee is lovely too .

Fantastic place to visit - I could have stayed in the room of curiosities for hours! In fact I spent so much time in that one room I didn't have time to go and look around the grounds - a good excuse for another visit! The cafe is amazing excellent food - one of the best cheese pies I ever tasted - and coffee is good. The staff were extremely friendly, efficient and went that one step extra to help.

Lovely museum and gallery with a great variety of things to see. Nothing intetactive to speak of but plenty interesting enough if you're willing to read a few paragraphs. Would have loved to stay for a bit of lunch but the restaurant was only serving full-on mains, we ended up driving to Costa for coffee and sandwiches.

We had a really delicious lunch here and walked round the museum and art gallery.. such a lovely, friendly bunch of people work there.. thank you all for making our visit so perfect. We'll be back!

Really enjoyed my visit to the museum, small place but so many things for kids to do and see. The revamped bar and lunch area is well made although I much prefer the previous area which was very charming

We visited the Whitaker to see the current exhibition and in addition enjoyed parts of the museum, such as the Cabinet of Curiosities room. The rooms are beautifully airy and the exhibits are well curated. I was told the staff (mostly volunteers) were very friendly and helpful and they are.