Mummy and lock of hair showcased at college

An Egyptian mummy and a lock of Mary Queen of Scots’ hair are two of the artifacts that are put on display at a Lancashire college.
The collection will be presented at Stonyhurst College, a 16th Century former manor house near Clitheroe. Other items that are included are 17th Century Persian astronomical calendar, a hat belonging to St Thomas More and Arthur Conan Doyle’s school desk.
They will be on showcase from 4 August over the summer months. The Egyptian Archaeology mummy is the body of a young boy aged about five or six years that was preserved at death and is about 2,500 years old.
A Jesuit missionary and archaeologist with a strong scientific interest in Egyptology discovered it in the 1850s and brought back to Stonyhurst. During the tour of the college, visitors will allowed to see the desk on which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle carved his name, the table on which Oliver Cromwell slept before the Battle of Preston and Jacobite pistols.
Katherine Walker, marketing director at Stonyhurst, said: “It will be a rare opportunity to view artefacts that are sacred as well as secular. “Stonyhurst is a Grade I listed building and well-known for its magnificent towers and gardens.
“It is considered as the ‘Jewel in the Crown’ of Lancashire’s beautiful Ribble Valley, so well worth a visit.”