Exciting news about Pontefract Museum

Pontefract Museum is to undergo the final part of a £102,000 refurbishment programme - which will enable it to display objects from national collections.

 

The museum will be temporarily closed from Monday 16 May 2016 until Saturday 30 July, to enable phase two of the work to be completed.

 

The second phase of the work will see £52,000 invested in new displays themed around medieval Pontefract, the story of liquorice and the Civil War.

 

An activity area will also be created to encourage schools, families and the local community to get involved with the collections.

 

The change will mean that the museum will be able to loan exhibits from national museums such as the British Museum.

 

The Arts Council England and Museums Development Yorkshire have invested a total of £102,000 in the museum over the last two years.

 

Work on the first phase saw new lighting, improvements to the entrance area and an upgrade and extension to the special exhibitions gallery

 

Cllr Les Shaw said: “The redevelopments taking place at the Museum are particularly exciting as they will enable us to bring significant loans from national museums such as the British Museum and The Royal Armouries to Pontefract for the first time”.

 

During the temporary closure there will be a small museum display with information about the redevelopment at Pontefract Library.

Spring Bank Holiday fun!

There is a lot going on over the Spring Bank Holiday. 

Click on our planner below for highlights, or follow this link for the full museums listing.




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Historic Photo Prints available to buy

Did you know that copies of our photograph collection are available to buy?

Gilligan's Roundabout in Fryston c. 1950

You can order A4 printed copies for £7.50 (+ VAT), which can be collected from any of our museums. Alternatively, we can post them to you for £1.50 (+ VAT).

Our photographic collection is also available for commercial use. So whether you would like to order a printed copy, or enquire about using our images in a publication or on television, please get in touch by e-mail or by phone on 01924 302104.

Pontefract Fire Brigade outside their fire station (Now Pontefract Town Hall) c. 1920

To view our wonderful historic photograph collection along with some of our other museum collections visit our online collections site.  

Royal Field Artillery, Yorkshire Brigade, on parade on Wood Street with the mayor of Wakefield, during WWI

Museum Rainbow

Spring has sprung...making the world seem a more colourful place.

Taking inspiration from Twitter's #MuseumRainbow here is a colourful tour of our plastics collection

Red

A pair of candle holders made from high impact polystyrene.


Orange

An elephant shaped napkin ring from the 1940s, made from cast phenolic.


Yellow

 

A cruet set - salt, pepper and mustard from the 1950s/60s, made from phenol formaldehyde - Bakelite


Green

Salad servers from the 1970s, made from  urea formaldehyde


Blue

A cheese dish , made from poly methyl methacrylate 


Indigo

A set of dolls house furniture from the 1960s, made from cellulose acetate


Violet

An air freshener holder from 1960s, made from polythene


Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain

You may remember this rhyme  to remember the colours of the rainbow from school - this describes the outcome of the Battle of Wakefield in 1460 which took place at Sandal Castle.  The duke of York lost his head in this battle.

A remarkable woman: Stephanie Park

We have recently added a fantastic set of objects to our collection related to the life of a remarkable local woman, the late Stephanie Park.

Stephanie Park née Hopley (1940-2012) was a nurse and midwife from Wakefield, who became a disability pioneer when she had her left leg amputated following a car accident. Stephanie took up shooting, competing for Great Britain and winning many prizes. Later, she gave up much of her time to coaching others and helped to establish the disability advice telephone line, DIAL. She also served as secretary of the Yorkshire branch of the British Sports Association for the Disabled (now part of Activity Alliance / English Federation of Disability Sport).

We are very grateful to her proud son, Daniel, for kindly donating his mother’s archive to us. Stephanie was an inspiration to Daniel, who wanted to make sure that disabled women are represented in the museum’s collection. This is just a selection of objects to give a flavour of the collection and of Stephanie’s many achievements.

Stephanie qualified as a midwife in 1963. Her midwife's medallion was made by the jewellers Thomas Fattorini Ltd and features Juno Lucina, a Roman goddess of childbirth

After losing her leg, Stephanie took up sport, adopting shooting as her preferred discipline. This certificate below from the National Small Bore Rifle Association officially gave her permission to compete from her wheelchair.

 

This brass chalice for first place was the first trophy Stephanie won in her shooting career in 1985

Stephanie came first in her event at the Disability Air Rifle World Championships held at Appledoorn, the Netherlands in 1987. She received this Delftsche Huys beer stein as part of her prize:





This is a target shot from the National Small Bore Rifle Association Championship in Cardiff, 1989, where Stephanie Park won 1^st place in the 10 metre air rifle event. At the Cardiff 1989 Open Shoot non-disabled and disabled athletes competed on an equal basis.

Stephanie was very proud of this achievement, getting all 10 shots through the central ring. Her target shot is one of the 100 Objects in our 100 Years of Collecting Online Exhibition.

Stephanie also gave up her time to coach and support other disabled athletes and was an adviser to the Sport Aid Foundation. Many of the athletes she helped went on to compete in the London Paralympics of 2012. 

This trophy was awarded posthumously as recognition for all Stephanie’s efforts for disability sport: 

Stephanie died in 2012. Friends and family remembered her warmly. 

Her proud son Daniel kindly donated her archive to us in 2014, and her memory now lives on in our collection.

Make and use a Pinhole Camera

Pinhole camera workshop - with Bob Clayden

Saturday 19th March

Castleford Forum Museum

From 9.45am to 3.30pm

 

Adult session – ages 18+

FREE

Inspired by the wonderful Jack Hulme photographs on display in Castleford Museum, join us for this adult workshop with local artist, Bob Clayden to make a pinhole camera from a recycled container, and take photographs with it.
The photographs will be taken in the area outside the museum on black and white photographic paper and the negatives developed in a pop-up darkroom under red safe light.

You will be shown techniques using Apps, open source or commercial software to make positive prints from the paper negative so  you may want to bring along digital camera or smart phone to take the images home with you.
FREE - booking essential on 01924 302700 or email as places are limited

February Half Term Planning

There's a lot happening at Wakefield's Museums and Castles this half term!

From trails and object handling, to animation and crafts, there's something to keep everyone entertained - with an Iron Age Day with warrior face-painting and crafts to finish the week in Castleford - and it is all FREE!

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For the full listing, follow this link.