Leominster Museum

Leominster Museum, formerly known as Leominster Folk Museum, is an independent, volunteer-run,[1] museum in Leominster, Herefordshire, England.[2][3]

Harlech Castle, by John Scarlett Davis, at the Museum

Interior of the museum, from the first-floor balcony

The museum, which opened in 1972, owns and displays a collection of artefacts relating to the local area, including banknotes and cheques from the Leominster & Herefordshire Bank, early local postage marks, material from the Leominster and Kington Railway, the Bronze Age Aymestrey burial, and a complete cider mill.[4] It also has a number of works by the Leominster-born artist John Scarlett Davis, including an 1828 self-portrait,[5] and a book of 173 sketches, purchased for £11,000 at auction at Christie's in March 1979.[6]

In 2014 the museum obtained an £8,900 Heritage Lottery Fund grant.[7] for a project called "Rifles and Spades", which commemorated the local effects of World War I. The project,[8] which finished in April 2015, comprised three Open Days at the museum, three public talks, a commemorative event at Leominster Priory attended by 240 people, an exhibition called 'Our Story' which was in Leominster Library for two months before touring various village and school locations,[9] and finally a linked set of education packs that are available to schools.[10]

In addition to its permanent displays the museum aims to stage a different temporary exhibition each season. In 2015 there were in fact two: one on the History of Morris Dancing and Mumming in Leominster, entitled 'Here be Dragons!',[11] and 'An Unlikely Champion - A History of Bill Bengry and Bengry Motors'.[12]

The museum building, on Etnam Street, was originally built in 1855 as a mission hall for workers constructing the local railways.