The Gustav Holst Birthplace Museum has received a significant cash injection courtesy of the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Located just a 5-minute walk from Cheltenham High Street, the museum has been carefully restored and refurbished as it would have been during Holst’s childhood in the 1870s. Holst, composer of the legendary ‘Planets Suite’, was born in the house on Clarence Road on 21st September 1874.

Laura Kinnear, curator of the museum, says the funding will be put to good use this summer. Said Laura: “It’s the third funded project we’ve received, which is great. The money helps us finance exhibitions and events that will be running throughout the year. One exhibition that we’re really looking forward to organising is the ‘Gustav Holst in Salonika’, which will be opening on July 10th. It will explore how Holst taught music to soldiers in Salonika and Constantinople during the Great War, as part of the YMCA’s education programme.

“Visitors to the museum will be able to immerse themselves in the period through letters, diaries, photographs and archive film, as well as a reconstruction of Holst’s own room in the Salonika YMCA. Holst’s most famous work, the epic ‘Planets Suite’, got its first public airing while he was entertaining the troops over in Greece. It promises to be a great exhibition.”

Laura has vast experience of working at some of Gloucestershire’s most well-known buildings; before taking the job at the Holst Birthplace Museum she enjoyed spells at the Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum (now the Wilson), Stroud Museum, the Folk Museum in Gloucester and Gloucestershire Archives. Said Laura: “The house gives a glimpse into what life would have been like for a young Gustav Holst growing up in Victorian England. Even if you don’t have an interest in Holst, a visit to the museum is like stepping back in time and seeing what life was like over one hundred years ago.”

One of the star attractions in the museum is the piano on which Holst composed his famous ‘Planets Suite’. Continued Laura: “It’s a great thrill to be able to work at a building with such a wonderful history. To come to work and see the very piano that Holst used to compose his most famous piece of work is an enormous honour.

“When you walk into the house it’s just like stepping back in time to the late nineteenth century. Our kitchen is set up just like it’s the 1870s. I enjoy dressing up in Victorian clothing and using utensils that would have been in kitchens in the nineteenth century. We run cooking workshops throughout the year, using ingredients and utensils from when Holst would have been a young boy. It’s a lot of fun to produce cakes and bread using Victorian kitchen utensils.”