Ravensknowle Hall was built in the late-1850s for a local textile baron, John Beaumont. The house was designed by the London architect, Richard Tress who designed the mansion in a "palatial Italian style" and cost about £20,000. Beaumont died in 1889 leaving the house to his daughter who sold it to a relative, Legh Tolson. In 1919 Legh Tolson gave Ravensknowle Hall to Huddersfield Corporation to use as a museum in memory of his two nephews, brothers 2nd Lieutenant Robert Huntriss Tolson, killed on 1 July 1916 at the
Battle of the Somme, and 2nd Lieutenant James Martin Tolson who died in the closing stages of the
First World War on 2 October 1918. Their sisters were the
suffragettes
Catherine Tolson and
Helen Tolson. Originally a natural history museum with an extensive collection of rocks and fossils, the museum was formally opened on 27 May 1922 under the directorship of
Thomas William Woodhead, a prominent local
plant ecologist and Professor of Biology at Huddersfield Technical College, with
Seth Lister Mosley being appointed the museum's first
curator. His son, Charles Mosley, was appointed as Assistant Curator before succeeding his father in 1925. Charles remained curator until 1933. The Tolson Museum was revamped in the 1980s to feature the industrial history of the Huddersfield area, including the manufacturing of textiles and road vehicles. ==Exhibits==