Can you help us to evaluate the Mapping Museums web application? Mapping Museums is a large-scale research project that is based at Birkbeck, University of London. It aims at documenting at analysing the development of the museum sector between 1960 and 2020. So far, the team has collected a rich range of data on approximately […]
[pending permission for use of the above photo, requested by email 22.8.17]
The Camera Museum began life as a cafe before being established in 2012 by Patrick and Adrian Tang, displaying Patrick’s growing collection of cameras. The display includes a timeline of cameras from the 1800s to the present. The sign makes reference to the nearby British Museum. Photo by Jamie Larkin.
The Bournemouth Transport Museum was a collection of public transport vehicles on display to the public each summer, probably from the late 1970s. It was later known as the Bournemouth Heritage Collection. Some of the vehicles were returned to commercial service in the early 1990s. The collection changed hands and locations a number of times […]
The Folk Museum, now known as the Gloucester Life Museum, is housed in Tudor timber-framed buildings. One of them is traditionally associated with the last night of John Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester and Worcester, who was burned for heresy by Queen Mary in 1555. The museum tells the social history of Gloucestershire and includes a […]
Some museums are well documented, while others can be rather elusive. A case in point is the Big Four Railway Museum in Bournemouth, about which we know very little. According to one source it housed a collection of railway locomotive name plates belonging to the enthusiast Frank Burridge and was open in the 1980s. As […]
Can you help us with opening and/or closing dates for the museums listed below? The Mapping Museums research team have compiled data on around 4,000 UK museums, but we’re missing crucial information about the opening and closing dates of a few venues. We know that these venues existed, but sometimes have little more than a […]
The historic houses listed below are all open to the public; however, we don’t know when they opened to the public. Can you help us? If so, do please get in touch with the project director, Professor Fiona Candlin on f.candlin@bbk.ac.uk. Name of museum Town or City Postcode Year open? Status ACTON COURT Bristol BS37 […]
This museum occupies an old blacksmith’s forge which had been unused since 1953. The collection was begun by Doreen Hodson-Smith, a local resident, but it had outgrown her home. The forge was seen as a suitable venue for a museum to house the collection, and after refurbishment it opened in 1991. The old forge and […]
The Basket Museum is part of Coates, a willow business based on the Somerset Levels. Willow for basket making has been grown on the levels for centuries. The museum displays a variety of willow items including bushel baskets, tricycles and traps. Images via the museum.
