Warwickshire News Mine

Over the past few days more than 2,000 visitors have come to experience what the Museum Service can offer. On the opening day, the crowds were entertained outside by a Stiltwalker, Medieval Musicians, and historical interpreters from “Discover History” who were dressed as Tudors, Stuarts, Romans and Victorians. Meanwhile Mike the Bee Keeper, together with lots of other museum staff and experts, were on hand to answer any questions and assist visitors in making the most of their visit. Cllr Saint, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for Culture, Leisure and Housing, opened the new front doors by officially cutting the red ribbon and invited guests to explore the newly refurbished museum.

After careful consideration of the historic nature of the building, Listed Building Consent was given for internal and external works which have significantly improved ground floor access and also aim to increase visitor numbers and provide a welcome boost to tourism in the current business climate.

The ground floor access building work has cost in the region of £200,000 which has been financed through a specific 3 year budget programme approved in February 2007 by Warwickshire County Council for funding improvements to buildings accessed by the Public including making reasonable adaptations for those with disabilities.

The second phase of work includes the relocation of the main doors and new reception counter and shop. Now work is complete, improvements include a new, more accessible, main entrance which has moved from the old location to face up Swan Street and which will provide easy street level access for visitors. On entering, visitors will be greeted by staff in a new reception counter & shop area which is compliant with Disability Discrimination Act standards. External improvements to the glazed arches also improve the welcome and encourage tourists. The old entrance has been infilled to match the other existing arches.

Care has been taken to minimise the impact on the historic fabric of the Market Hall and proposals have been informed by thorough historical research into the building and consideration of alternatives, including consultation with Warwick Society. 

The ground floor of Market Hall also houses the new temporary exhibition area named “Pedlars Gallery”. The first exhibition in this new area will be “The Material Life of Things”, a new exhibition of paintings and prints by Jill Irving and Kathy Webster which runs until Sunday 9th May.

Further internal improvements to ground and first floor galleries include the Honington Plesiosaur display in Geology, a new Egyptian case in Archaeology, improvements to the live bees display and the rehoming of the Warwickshire Bear in Natural History.

In addition to the new gallery displays, work has also been done to redisplay the Sheldon Tapestry and to display the Waverley Wood hand axes, both of which feature as objects on BBC Coventry & Warwickshire’s History of the World series.

The Sheldon Tapestry is a fine example of a 16th century English tapestry and of Elizabethan decorative art. It is the only surviving complete map from the original Sheldon series of the 1580/90s and has major importance as a rare view of the county of Warwickshire at a time when modern map-making was in its infancy. It is also a graphic record of late 16th century Warwickshire and is a visual record of the Warwickshire of William Shakespeare.

The Waverley Wood Hand Axe is one of ten items chosen from Coventry and Warwickshire by the BBC and local museums for the BBC’s A History of the World project. Sara Wear, Keeper of Archaeology for Warwickshire County Council’s Museum Service, said: “The Stone Age hand axe is one of the earliest examples of human ingenuity and creativity and is known as the ‘Swiss Army Knife of the Stone Age’ world. Such finds are extremely rare and the Waverley Wood Hand Axe is beautiful and particularly well preserved.”

The axe on show was found in 1988. In 2004 another very fine hand axe was found close to the site, in a quarry in Bubbenhall by John Greene the quarry manager, along with other hand tools and the bones of straight-tusked elephants.

Museum staff are extremely excited to have reopened to the public and to be able to exhibit new objects from the collection in the refurbished surroundings. Admission to the museum continues to be free and they look forward to being able to meet new and existing visitors from now onwards.

Museum opening hours are 10am – 5pm Tuesday to Saturday and Bank Holiday Mondays (all year round); 11.30am – 5pm on Sundays from April to September.

History of the Building: The Grade II* Listed Warwick Market Hall lies at the south end of the market place within the Anglo-Saxon and medieval town and within Warwick Conservation Area.  Along with other Listed Buildings around the Market Place it makes a considerable contribution to the historic townscape of Warwick. The current building, which was built in 1670 under the supervision of the Warwickshire craftsman-architect, William Hurlbutt, stands on the site of an earlier, probably medieval, market building, buried remains of which may survive. The building is two storied with an attic and with fine first floor rooms over an arcaded ground floor, originally open and used for market stalls.  Much of the late 17th-century structure still survives.  Through the 18th century the upper floors were rented out for various activities from wild beast shows to wool storage, and in 1836 it was leased to the newly formed Warwickshire Natural History and Archaeological Society for meetings and to house displays.  The ground floor was walled in 1879 and by 1905, when alterations including a new staircase were made, the Museum of the Society had taken over the whole structure.  In 1932 the collections were donated to the County Council who also acquired the building in 1938. The newly renovated Museum opened in 1951.  Further extensive renovations, including reroofing and the reconstruction of the original cupola took place in 1965.

Link to WCC