Trueʼs Yard Fisherfolk Museum

Mrs Petts

The last surviving fisherfolk yard

For visitors to discover and enjoy Lynn’s North End past and present is the aim and the Museum has remarkable heritage assets. At its heart is the last surviving fisherfolk yard with cottages. Though 4 of the 6 cottages were demolished in the 1930’s, the two remaining were built in the late 18^th century, and their historic fabric and fixtures are largely intact. In 1818 William True purchased True’s Yard for £295, hence its name.

The Museum’s HLF extension project

In 2009 the Museum’s HLF extension project included the discovery of a small smokehouse at 3-5 St Ann’s Street. The latter property is late 18^th and 19^th Its industrial rear range was converted for domestic use but the historic fabric remained. This allowed the restoration of the smokehouse to enrich True’s Yard as a heritage site and attraction.

True’s Yard is of special architectural and historic interest

True’s Yard not only informs visitors about Lynn’s built up environment or housing for much of its population in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, but contrasts nicely with the town’s grand merchant mansions. Survival of such Georgian working class dwellings in urban England is rare. Indeed, True’s Yard is of special architectural and historic interest from a national perspective, and the two cottages and smokehouse were listed grade 2 by English Heritage in 2009.

Officially opened in March 1993

True’s Yard was officially opened by HRH, The Prince of Wales, in March 1993. In February 2010 an extension to the Museum was opened by HM The Queen, accompanied by HRH Prince Philip. Since 1991 nearly 250,000 people have visited this community Museum.

5th Battalion – Norfolk Regiment arriving King’s Lynn Station 1914

Winchester City Museum

Hampshire Cultural Trust was established in 2014 to promote Hampshire as a great cultural county and to operate arts and museums facilities previously operated by Hampshire County Council and Winchester City Council. We manage and support 26 arts and museums attractions across Hampshire (23 directly and three in partnership), and deliver county-wide outreach programmes that bring great culture to local communities.

We work with young people and target audiences from diverse backgrounds in all areas including literature, rural arts touring, the visual arts and local history. In addition, we look after 2.5 million objects relating to Hampshire’s internationally significant cultural heritage.

Brentwood Museum

Welcome to our brand new website!   We appreciate your interest and support. 

The Brentwood Museum Society was founded in 1977. It acquired its present building in 1985 and was first regularly open to the public in 1989. In 1993 the Museum was granted formal registration with the Museum and Galleries Commission, one of just a handful of Essex Museums to gain such recognition, and all the more remarkable since it is staffed entirely by volunteers. In 2008 the Museum was granted Full Accreditation status by the Museums Libraries and Archives Council. 

If you would like to be involved, the Brentwood Museum Society welcomes new members. 

You are of course also welcome as a visitor simply to come and look around the Museum! 

Please click on the links across the top of the page for further information about the Museum.  

Budleigh Salterton Arts Centre and Museum

Holst Birthplace Museum

Gustav Holst, composer of The Planets, was born in this Regency house in 1874. The Museum was set up in 1975 to celebrate Cheltenham’s most famous son and also to offer a glimpse into what life was like for an ordinary 19^th century family living in the town. Step back in time as you wander through its historic rooms, including Holst’s Victorian bedroom, nursery, kitchen and scullery. Imagine Cheltenham’s Regency past in the only Regency room open to the public in the town, complete with hand blocked wallpaper, fine furnishings and 19^th century art collection. See and listen to the piano Holst used to compose The Planets in a recreation of his music room. Delve deeper into his life in the Holst Discovery Space, through archives and film. Drop into the Learning Space for one of our regular family activities

We are a small, independent museum governed by the Holst Birthplace Trust, registered charity number: 1078599.

Glastonbury Abbey

The Saxons, who had been converted to Christianity, conquered the ancient county of Somerset in the 7th Century. Their King was Ine of Wessex, who was widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of the abbey. He was a local man who boosted the status and income of the abbey, and it is said that he put up a stone church, the base of which forms the west end of the nave.

This church was enlarged in the 10th century by the Abbot of Glastonbury, St. Dunstan, who became the Archbishop of Canterbury in 960.

In 1066, the wealth of the abbey could not cushion the Saxon monks from the disruption caused by the foreign invasion and subsequent conquest of England by the Normans.

Skilled Norman craftspeople contributed much to the abbey by adding magnificent buildings to the existing Saxon Church. These were built to the east of the older church and away from the ancient cemetery.

The Norman betterment of the abbey was extensive. In 1086, when the Domesday Book was commissioned to provide records and a census of life in England, Glastonbury Abbey was the richest monastery in the country.

The great Norman structures were consumed by fire in 1184 when many of the ancient treasures were destroyed. One story goes, that in order to raise extra funds from pilgrims to rebuild the abbey the monks, in 1191, dug to find King Arthur and his Queen Guinevere; and bones from two bodies were raised from a deep grave in, the cemetery on the south side of the Lady Chapel. These bones were reburied, much later, in 1278 within the Abbey Church, in a black marble tomb, in the presence of King Edward I.

When the monastic buildings were destroyed in the fire of 1184, the medieval monks needed to find a new place to worship. There is evidence that the 12th century nave was renovated and used for this purpose for almost 30 years, until some of the work was completed on the new church. The monks reconsecrated the Great Church and began services there on Christmas Day, 1213, most likely before it was entirely completed.

In the 14th century, as the head of the second wealthiest abbey in Britain (behind Westminster Abbey), the Abbot of Glastonbury lived in considerable splendour and wielded tremendous power. The main surviving example of this power and wealth is to be found in the Abbot’s Kitchen – part of the magnificent Abbot’s house begun by John de Breynton (1334-42).

Privileged pilgrims might once have stayed in the abbey itself; excavations have disclosed a special apartment at the south end of the Abbot’s house, erected for a visit from the English King, Henry VII.

In 1536, during the 27th year of the reign of Henry VIII, there were over 800 monasteries, nunneries and friaries in Britain. By 1541, there were none. More than 10,000 monks and nuns had been dispersed and the buildings had been seized by the Crown to be sold off or leased to new lay occupiers. Glastonbury Abbey was one of principal victims of this action by the King, during the social and religious upheaval known as the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

Kingsbridge Cookworthy Museum

The museum was opened in 1972 in the old Kingsbridge Grammar School buildings. Mrs Evelyn Northcott persuaded English China Clays Ltd. to rescue the derelict building and found a museum to collect and record the social history of the area.

The Museum was named after William Cookworthy, who was born in Kingsbridge, and who developed the first true hard-paste porcelain (“china”). 

The Museum facilities now include:

• Displays of artefacts from the early history of Kingsbridge through to the present day;
• A gallery of agricultural machinery and tools;
• A collection of over 16,000 photographs dating from the 1870’s through to the present day;
• Costumes from the 19th and 20th centuries;
• A viewing gallery giving a virtual tour of the Museum;
• A resource centre to support personal research. This has many local documents including microfilm copies of local newspapers from 1855 to the present.

Westgate Museum

Winchester’s Tudor and Stuart era is revealed in this beautifully refurbished listed monument, the last of the main medieval gates into the city. There are great views of the city from the Westgate roof.

Cheltenham Art Gallery And Museum

In 1898 the third Baron de Ferrieres, a former Mayor and MP for Cheltenham, gave 43 important paintings, mostly from Belgium and the Netherlands, to the town, together with £1000 towards the building of a gallery in which to house them. This was opened in 1899.

In 1905 the Schools of Art and Science left the premises they occupied next door to the Art Gallery, and the Museum was opened in these rooms two years later. From that time the collections grew in number and in quality, with the great majority generously given by the people of Cheltenham. In 1975 a branch museum was opened in the birthplace of Gustav Holst, the composer, which was completely furnished from the collections. This became an independent museum in 2000. In 1983 a museum was opened to display the costume collection in Cheltenham’s most important historic building, the Pittville Pump Room: this was closed in 1999.

The first real increase in space and visitor facilities came in 1989 when HRH The Princess Royal opened an extension to the Art Gallery & Museum. This is the building in which the main entrance is sited.

Locksmithʼs House

The Locksmith’s House celebrates the efforts of the small family run lock making businesses which thrived over a century ago. Working from the back yards of their own houses, hundreds of small family businesses evolved.

A visit to the Locksmith’s House will demonstrate how such a business operated alongside family life.

The house is recreated with the actual belongings and furniture of the Hodson family of lock makers, the last inhabitants of 54 New Road, Willenhall. The working class family home is accompanied in the back yard by a two-storey workshop building. A working forge and machinery adds to the atmosphere. Our lock display gallery offers an insight into some extraordinary locks from across the ages.

Our costumed guides will be happy to escort you around the property, and hands-on activities such as making a rag rug or toasting on the kitchen range can be arranged for your group.

At the moment the Locksmith’s House is only open to the public on open days, for special events and for pre-arranged group visits.