For more than 200 years, until the final decade of the 20th-century, members of the Jefferson family had a finger in every possible Cumbrian pie. From shipbuilding to hospitals, railways to local politics, schools or banking, they were involved.

They traded with the West Indies, where they owned sugar plantations, and with the New World from which they imported tobacco. They were also wine merchants and, eventually, the oldest family of rum traders in the UK.

From their Antiguan estates into their vast bonded warehouses in the centre of the West Cumbrian port of Whitehaven, there once poured barrel upon barrel of rum - “the dark spirit of Whitehaven”.

But times change. The once-bustling harbour lost out to larger ports like Liverpool; the rum trade declined; the town’s supermarkets threatened the Jeffersons’ retail trade and, finally, the two sisters, who were the last remaining active members of the family business, closed the doors of the old wine and spirit shop in Lowther Street in 1998. It was the end of an empire - and the beginning of “The Rum Story”.

Part of Whitehaven’s pound;11.5 million Millennium Tourism Project, “The Rum Story”, housed in the old Jefferson warehouses, is very much more than the history of rum. It is a wide-ranging educational resource for children from five years up to further education students (for whom there are NVQ related courses in marketing and tourism).

There can be hardly any aspect of the curriculum which is not touched upon - history, geography, maths, English, environmental studies, ecology, sociology, art - all have their place in this highly entertaining and informative centre.

Today’s computer competent youngsters are fascinated by the authentic 19th-century office evoking Dickensian-style working conditions, complete with high stools, copperplate ledgers, an ancient typewriter and adding machine.

The beautifully reproduced rain forest shows what Antigua was like before the forests were cleared for sugar plantations. Animated iguanas lurk among the trees where butterflies perch. Birds sing and there’s an occasional roll of thunder. For the children, the contrast with the conditions on the ensuing plantations, in the sugar factories and the rum distilleries, is stark.They are brought up to date with a film telling the story of rum production today, with the emphasis on the use of renewable resources.

The slave trade was a big part of the rum story and the centre deals with it graphically, featuring a reproduction of a section of a slave ship with the manacled slaves lying in closely packed rows, unable to move. Young people tend to find this section both disturbing and thought-provoking, frequently asking, “Are there slaves today?” One outraged child wrote of the “atroshus things that happen to slaves”. She ended her report, “Isn’t that the most disgusting thing you ever heard? Well, I think it is.”

But children, being resilient, are soon enjoying the lighter aspects of the exhibition - an encounter with the pirate, Black Beard, a view of Nelson’s body being immersed in a preservative barrel of brandy for its journey back to England. There are buttons to press, which light up various named parts of a sailing ship; portholes through which to view mythical sea monsters; cottage windows from which smugglers on the Cumbrian coast can be glimpsed.

There’s a section devoted to the craft of coopering (barrel-making), with its stern injunction to apprentices in the workroom “noise and speaking will not be tolerated”! Later, in the centre pupils can try their hand at making a “model” barrel.

With prior booking, each visiting school has the exclusive use of the well-equipped classroom, seating 40. There’s a screen and slides. Books, provided by the Schools’ Library Service, cover all aspects of the rum story and materials are available for the pupils to write, draw or make their own models.

Teachers may have a free familiarisation tour before the class visit. An education programme is offered on CD for under pound;5. This summer there will be a series of drama sessions focusing on aspects of the rum story. These will cost pound;2 per child.

Open every day except Christmas and New Year’s Day - 10am to 5pm, summer; 10am to 4pm, winter; other times by arrangement. pound;2 per child, includes guide. Lowther Street, Whitehaven CA28 7DN. Tel: 01946 592933 Fax: 01946 590595 www.rumstory.co.uk

RUM RESOURCES

The Rum Story CD gives an exhibition overview as well as a booklet on each topic covered and a 55-title picture library covering every area of the overview. Topics covered in the teachers’ booklets include: the black man in Whitehaven (servants and freemen); flora and fauna of Antigua; Christopher Columbus, sugar and rum - how it is made; black and white in the Caribbean; welcome to the New World; slavery - the triangular trade; Lord Nelson; the apprentice cooper; pirates; smuggling; rum production; different sizes of barrels; rum and revolution (stamping it out, saloon bar politicians, God, health and divine blessing); the captain’s table (compass, sextant, quadrant and charts) and prohibition (Al Capone, Eliot Ness and the Untouchables).