Drawing crowds - Derwent Pencil Museum in Keswick praised for its quirkiness

The Derwent Pencil Museum is the only Cumbrian museum to be part of the ten most unusual museums in the country - and the news has been welcomed by the museum's manager.

The ten most unusual museums in the UK were chosen by holidaycottages.co.uk, a website for people to book holiday cottages.

However, they also write blog posts covering popular areas of travel in the country - such as The Lake District.

Of the musuem, the blog post said: "Celebrating all things pencil related, the Derwent Pencil Museum boasts a fine array of graphite goodies including a Second World War secret pencil collection and the Guinness World Record-holding, biggest colouring pencil in the world (a staggering eight metres long).

"Located in Keswick, where graphite was first mined for pencils, visitors enter the museum through a replica graphite mine and follow the fascinating history of pencil production from the reign of Elizabeth I to the present day.

"As you would expect, there’s plenty of opportunities for drawing with a variety of art workshops for both children and adults, while the Derwent Fine Art gift shop is the perfect spot to pick up the renowned brand’s writing tools to try at home."

The manager of the musuem, Tracy Strong, was delighted to hear the news.

She said: "We've been here for 40 years, and we celebrated that anniversary last year so the fact it's been recognised across the UK is amazing."

On why the museum is considered unusual, she said: "The only way I can describe it is the museum is like Marmite, they come here because it's like 'What would you find in the pencil museum?'.

The 'most unusual' exhibit

"The most unusual exhibiton is the World War 2 pencil commissioned by MI9.

"It contains a map and a compass; the idea is that the pencil has a map and compass inside if you break it open, you have what you need."