The Isles of Scilly Museum is a museum in the Isles of Scilly, off Cornwall, England. As of 2023 [update] the museum has no building but displays a selection of its collection in a range of locations on the islands.
The Isles of Scilly Museum is a museum in the Isles of Scilly, off Cornwall, England. As of 2023 [update] the museum has no building but displays a selection of its collection in a range of locations on the islands.
The museum describes its collections as "extremely diverse, including material from many wrecks; a wild flower display (during the summer months); Romano-British artefacts; stuffed birds; local art and much more". They include Romano-British finds from the small island of Nornour, and the Bryher Sword and Bryher Mirror from the iron-age grave of the Bryher Woman, found on Bryher in 1999. [1]
When storms in 1962 uncovered a collection of Romano-British artefacts on the island of Nornour, a group of islanders established a museum for their display, initially as a seasonal display in the Wesleyan Chapel. By 1967 they had raised funds and a museum building, with residential flats above, was built in Church Street, Hugh Town on St Mary's. The museum opened on 15 July 1967 and was visited by Queen Elizabeth II on 8 August 1967. It is run by the Isles of Scilly Museum Association, a registered charity.
In June 2019 the Council of the Isles of Scilly, announced that "An engineer has assessed the building and advised that the ceiling of the museum poses a risk to staff and visitors", [2] and in September 2019 the council informed the association that "because the Museum building was considered beyond practical and economic repair, Councillors had therefore agreed to seek vacant possession of the building with a view to its demolition." [3]
The museum has arranged the removal of its collections from the condemned building, and stored them in the Town Hall (an 1889 grade II listed building [4] in The Parade, Hugh Town) and the Porthmellon Enterprise Centre. [3]
Several "Pop-up" exhibitions have been established on the various islands, under the title "Museum on the Move", and the front part of the Town Hall is in use as a Visitor Centre displaying some of the museum's greatest treasures, including Bryher Woman 's sword and mirror. [3] [5]
In 2021, the museum's curator, Kate Hale, told The Guardian :
The priority in the short term was to get everything safe. The mid term is to keep the museum alive ... Museum on the Move is part of that. But we’re also planning for the long term, how we can build a new permanent museum and make sure it is the centre of cultural life on Scilly. We are ambitious and optimistic. [6]
As of 2023 [update] there is a plan to develop the existing Town Hall building as the Isles of Scilly Cultural Centre and Museum. [7] [8] In December 2022, a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant was obtained to support the development of plans, with a view to having "Museum fit out complete and building fully open" in the winter of 2025–2026. [9]
Tresco is the second-biggest island of the Isles of Scilly. It is 297 ha (1.15 sq mi) in area, measuring about 3.5 km (2.2 mi) by 1.75 km (1.09 mi).
Hugh Town is the largest settlement on the Isles of Scilly and its administrative centre. The town is situated on the island of St Mary's, the largest and most populous island in the archipelago, and is located on a narrow isthmus which joins the peninsula known as the Garrison with the rest of the island.
HMS Colossus was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was launched at Gravesend on 4 April 1787 and lost on 10 December 1798. During her years of service she participated in the Battle of Groix, the Battle of Cape St Vincent, and the Battle of the Nile. While carrying wounded from the latter, she was wrecked at the Isles of Scilly. The wreck is a Protected Wreck managed by Historic England.
The Horniman Museum and Gardens is a museum in Forest Hill, London, England. Commissioned in 1898, it opened in 1901 and was designed by Charles Harrison Townsend in the Modern Style. It has displays of anthropology, natural history and musical instruments, and is known for its large collection of taxidermied animals. The building is Grade II* listed.
Reading Museum is a museum of the history of the town of Reading, in the English county of Berkshire, and the surrounding area. It is accommodated within Reading Town Hall, and contains galleries describing the history of Reading and its related industries, a gallery of artefacts discovered during the excavations of Calleva Atrebatum, a copy of the Bayeux Tapestry, finds relating to Reading Abbey and an art collection.
St Agnes is the southernmost populated island of the Isles of Scilly. Thus the island's Troy Town Farm is the southernmost settlement in the United Kingdom.
Bryher is one of the smallest inhabited islands of the Isles of Scilly, with a population of 177 in 2021, spread across 134 hectares (1.34 km2). Bryher exhibits a procession of prominent hills connected by low-lying necks and sandy bars. Landmarks include Hell Bay, famous for shipwrecks in the 18th and 19th centuries, Shipman Head, which was fortified in the Iron Age and where the tumbled ramparts of an Iron Age castle remain, and All Saints' Church, originally constructed in 1742. The island has two quays, Church Quay and Bar Quay.
The Council of the Isles of Scilly is a sui generis unitary local government authority covering the Isles of Scilly off the west coast of Cornwall. It is currently made up of 16 seats, with all councillors being independents. The council was created in 1890 as the Isles of Scilly Rural District Council and was renamed in 1974.
The Cyprus Museum is the oldest and largest archaeological museum in Cyprus.
The Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, formerly known as the Museum of Witchcraft, is a museum dedicated to European witchcraft and magic located in the village of Boscastle in Cornwall, south-west England. It houses exhibits devoted to folk magic, ceremonial magic, Freemasonry, and Wicca, with its collection of such objects having been described as the largest in the world.
The Isles of Scilly is an archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. One of the islands, St Agnes, is over four miles further south than the most southerly point of the British mainland at Lizard Point.
All Saints' Church is a Grade II listed parish church in the Church of England located in Bryher, Isles of Scilly.
St Mary's Church, St Mary's is a parish church in the Church of England located in Hugh Town, St Mary's, Isles of Scilly, UK. The Church was consecrated on 7 September 1838 and replaced the church at Old Town which was inconvenient for the Hugh Town population and in need of repair.
St Mary's Old Church, St Mary's is a parish church in the Church of England located in Old Town on St Mary's, Isles of Scilly, Cornwall, United Kingdom.
The Isles of Scilly Football League is the official football league for the Isles of Scilly. The football league is the smallest in the world, with only two clubs.
The Wiltshire Museum, formerly known as Wiltshire Heritage Museum and Devizes Museum, is a museum, archive and library and art gallery established in 1874 in Devizes, Wiltshire, England. The museum was created and is run by the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, a registered charity founded in 1853.
Five Islands Academy, formerly Five Islands School, is the first federated school in the United Kingdom, providing primary and secondary education for children from 3 to 16 at five sites in the Isles of Scilly. As of May 2022, the headteacher is Rachel Gibb, and the Chair of the Local Academy Committee is Jeremy Brown.
The Centre for Computing History is a museum in Cambridge, England, established to create a permanent public exhibition telling the story of the Information Age.
The Norrard (Northern) Rocks are a group of small uninhabited granite rocks in the north–western part of the Isles of Scilly, to the west of Bryher and Samson. In 1971 they were designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for their breeding seabird colonies and they are permanently closed to landings from boat passengers. The vegetation on the islands is limited by the extreme exposure and only six species of flowering plants have been recorded.
The Bryher Woman was an iron-age woman whose cist grave, containing a mirror and a sword, was discovered on Bryher, Isles of Scilly, in 1999. In 2023, scientists announced that analysis of the tooth fragments showed her to be female.
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