Come and see!

We are very excited to open bookings for our events and activities programme for Wakefield Museum and Library!  We're planning a huge range of activities and events to introduce you to what we have on offer - have a look at the programme and come and join the fun!

Activities include:

Meet the Expert - every Thursday

Object highlight- lunchtime talks - starting with Parliament Week

Family workshops for October half term, including the Big Draw, handling real animals and lots of fun crafts.


Children's illustrator, Lynne Chapman will be joining us for the Big Draw

 

Crafty Crocs - new monthly creative fun sessions for 2-5 year olds

Crafty Crocs! for ages 2-5

 

Medieval Menus - drop-in session to find out about medieval food


Find out about medieval eating with the You Are What You Ate project

Victorian Christmas -  storytelling, crafts and the very wonderful Palace of Curiosities sideshow!

The Palace of Curiosities Victorian Sideshow

Into the mind of a Doctor Who writer!

Doctor Who writer, Robert Shearman

For all  of these events - and loads more, follow this link to the full events programme, and get yourself booked on!




Follow the link above to see the full programme!

Wedding Dress on display... ...coming very soon now!

We will be showing off a whole range of wedding dresses at Wakefield Museum. Here volunteer costume curator Nicola Townend and Sobia Pervaiz, who has kindly agreed to lend us her dress, prepare it for display. See the results very soon in the Love display.  It's not long now...

Wedding dress being prepared for display

Special Offer for Young Archaeologists!

We are really pleased to announce that Wakefield's new museum will be included in the Young Archaeologists' Club annual pass.  Museums and attractions across the UK have been invited to participate, and so we are now developing an interactive museum trail - exclusive for YACs! 

The trail will look at the history of Wakefield from its archaeological and object evidence - from Palaeolithic hand axes to a gold posy ring excavated at Sandal Castle - all are clues to Wakefield's past!

Young Archaeologist Club members can show their membership card when they visit the museum, to be given this exclusive trail which will use our new multimedia handheld devices.



The 2012 pass.   We're proud to be part  of the YAC pass 2013!

If you are interested in finding out more about Young Archaeologists' clubs, have a look at their website. 

The most local branch is based at Pontefract castle, meeting once a month on the second Saturday.   Sessions are all on an archaeological theme, including craft skills, practical archaeological skills, and plenty of fun! There are usually several opportunities each year to take part in real archaeology, either within the club itself or via connected organisations.  

For more information email or call 01924 223373

We've found love!

We’ve had a fantastic response to our request for love stories and the displays are going to be all the better for it. The Love section of the new museum will include couples who had a traditional Muslim wedding, ones who have  been married for over 70 years, three generations who chose the 29^th March to get married and a glimpse of the modern Westgate hen night.

John and Nora Mountain - married 71 years and still together

John and Nora last week

This will all sit alongside our amazing wedding and courtship collections. 

It's getting close!

This week all of the text panels were proof-read, re-proof-read, and then checked again to have them signed off ready for production!


The proof-reading is over!

We have been very lucky to have had the input of local experts such as Kate Taylor and John Goodchild to keep us on our toes.  

We've also had help from a whole host of individuals whose family stories have contributed to the story of Wakefield.  Ben Asquith of Brandy Carr Nurseries shared memories and checked our facts on his grandfather - Saville Helm Ramsden, an entrepreneurial rhubarb grower. 

Well, it wouldn't be Wakefield without rhubarb!

Portrait with a cat's head!

Charles Waterton (1782 - 1865) is one of Wakefield's most fascinating characters, and will be featured in the new museum.

He was a pioneer.  He studied the wildlife and people of the South American rainforests, his tales of capturing specimens such as the caiman crocodile (pictured above on the banner) reading like 'Boys' Own'  adventures.  He was still climbing trees into his 80s!

Waterton perfected a new way to preserve animals for display, performed experiments on rainforest poisons which have been important  in modern medicine and founded the world's first nature reserve - at Walton Hall, Wakefield.

Charles Waterton is such an important subject for Wakefield Museum, that we were absolutely delighted to receive some new donations relating to him recently.

Mr Benjamin Weeks from Switzerland (the great, great, great grandson of Charles Waterton) has recently donated an oil painting of Charles Waterton painted by a student of the Royal Academy. This painting is based on the original 1824 portrait by Charles Willson Peale which is currently on display in the National Portrait Gallery.  It shows Waterton posing with the preserved head of a cat!

Museum Registrar, Leanne Dodds taking in the new donations

Mr Weeks also donated 28 pieces of Waterton family porcelain, 9 of which have the Waterton family crest on them and may have been used in Walton Hall when Charles Waterton lived there. The items belonged to Mr Weeks’ late mother Mrs Pamela Weeks nee Waterton who was Charles’ great, great granddaughter.

The family have previously donated 4 of Charles’ ‘Wanderings’ notebooks written during his time in South America, a number of photographs and prints of Walton Hall, a poem about Charles written on his death and a wall clock owned by Charles Waterton.

Wakefield Museum is Looking for Love!

Wakefield’s new museum will contain an area exploring love.  We have a wartime wedding dress, made out of net curtains, various early Valentine’s cards, and even a medieval posy ring! 

We would really like to collect some more contemporary love stories to display when the museum opens this Autumn.

Medieval ring from Sandal Castle - the inscription reads 'I'm all yours' in medieval  French

Are you a couple that met or courted in Wakefield’s Music Saloon on Wood Street?  If so, we would love to hear from you so that we can arrange to meet with you and be told all about how you met.

Or, have you recently had your hen-night in Wakefield (or will be having one soon)?  We would love to be able to display some of your hen-night kit!  Did you have ‘L’ plates, customised T-shirts etc.?  Please get in touch if you would be happy to donate some items (and a photograph of you with your ‘hens’) for display in the love section of the museum!

To contact us, please email to leave your contact details, and we will be in touch!