List of museums in County Durham

Last updated February 03, 2023

This list of museums in County Durham, England, contains museums which are defined for this context as institutions (including nonprofit organizations, government entities, and private businesses) that collect and care for objects of cultural, artistic, scientific, or historical interest and make their collections or related exhibits available for public viewing. Also included are non-profit art galleries and university art galleries. Museums that exist only in cyberspace (i.e., virtual museums) are not included.

Name	Town/City	Type	Summary
Ankers House Museum	Chester-le-Street	Religious	Located at St Mary and St Cuthbert Church, medieval room used by anchorites
Auckland Castle	Bishop Auckland	Historic house	Home of the Bishop of Durham for over 800 years
Beamish Museum	Beamish	Open air	Focus is 1825 and 1913 life in urbanized North East England, includes trains, agriculture, industry exhibits
Bishop Auckland Town Hall	Bishop Auckland	Art	Former town hall, houses Bishop Auckland's main public library, a theatre, an art gallery, tourist information centre and a café-bar
Bowes Museum	Barnard Castle	Art	Includes fine art, decorative art, ceramics, textiles, tapestries, clocks and costumes
DLI Museum	Durham	Military	History of the Durham Light Infantry, located in same building as the Durham Art Gallery
Durham Art Gallery	Durham	Art	website, modern and contemporary art, located in same building as the DLI Museum
Durham Castle	Durham	Historic house	Norman castle, part of University College, Durham, open for guided tours
Durham Cathedral	Durham	Religious	Includes tower, monk's dormitory, shrine of Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, exhibits on the cathedral's construction and history
Durham Mining Museum	Spennymoor	Mining	website, mining in the Northern part of England
Durham Museum and Heritage Centre	Durham	Local	Local history
Hartlepool Art Gallery	Hartlepool	Art	Operated by the Hartlepool Borough Council, exhibits of crafts, contemporary and fine art, and photography
Hartlepool's Maritime Experience	Hartlepool	Maritime	Recreation of an 18th-century seaport in the time of Lord Nelson, Napoleon and the Battle of Trafalgar
Head of Steam	Darlington	Railway	Heritage railroad and museum
Heugh Battery Museum	Hartlepool	Military	Restored 19th century coastal defense battery and exhibits about local coastal artillery forces
HMS Trincomalee	Hartlepool	Maritime	Early 19th century Royal Navy Leda class frigate museum ship
Hopetown Carriage Works	Durham	Railway
Killhope	Killhope	Mining	Former 19th century lead mine, minerals, life of the miner and family
Museum of Archaeology	Durham	Archaeology	Also known as Old Fulling Mill Museum of Archaeology, part of the University of Durham, artifacts from prehistoric, Ancient Greece, Roman and Medieval periods
Museum of Hartlepool	Hartlepool	Local	Local history, maritime heritage, PS Wingfield Castle museum ship
National Railway Museum Shildon	Shildon	Railway	Branch of the National Railway Museum, includes over 70 railway heritage vehicles
Oriental Museum	Durham	Ethnographic	Part of the University of Durham, includes Chinese, Egyptian, Korean, Japanese and other far east and Asian artifacts
Palace Green Library	Durham	Library	Part of the Durham University Library, exhibits from the University's collections in art, history, culture, literature, website
Preston Park Museum & Grounds	Preston-on-Tees	Local	Includes a recreated period street of the 1890s, period rooms, an armoury and a toy collection
Raby Castle	Staindrop	Historic house	Medieval castle with 18th & 19th century decorations, deer park, gardens
Rokeby Park	Greta Bridge	Historic house	Palladian-style country house
Spennymoor Town Hall Art Gallery	Spennymoor	Art	Municipal art gallery
Tanfield Railway	Tanfield	Railway	Heritage railroad and shed with locomotives and equipment
Weardale Museum	Ireshopeburn	Local	Local history, mining, geology, John Wesley and Methodist memorabilia, farming, railway

Defunct museums

Durham Miners Heritage Centre
Vintage Vehicles Shildon, closed in 2012^[1]

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References

↑ "CLOSED - Vintage Vehicles Museum Shildon". Flicker. Retrieved 22 September 2013.

v t e Ceremonial county of County Durham
Unitary authorities	Borough of Darlington Borough of Hartlepool Borough of Stockton-on-Tees (part) County Durham
Major settlements	Barnard Castle Billingham Bishop Auckland Chester-le-Street Chilton Consett Crook Darlington Durham Eaglescliffe Easington Easington Colliery Ferryhill Hartlepool Middleton-in-Teesdale Newton Aycliffe Peterlee Seaham Sedgefield Shildon Spennymoor Stanley Stockton-on-Tees Tow Law Wolsingham See also: List of civil parishes in County Durham
Topics	Flag Parliamentary constituencies Places Population of major settlements SSSIs Schools Country houses Museums Grade I listed buildings Lord Lieutenant High Sheriff

v t e Museums in the United Kingdom
England	Bedfordshire Berkshire Bristol Buckinghamshire Cambridgeshire Cheshire Cornwall Cumbria Derbyshire Devon Dorset Durham East Riding of Yorkshire East Sussex Essex Gloucestershire Greater Manchester Hampshire Herefordshire Hertfordshire Isle of Wight Kent Lancashire Leicestershire Lincolnshire London Merseyside Norfolk Northamptonshire Northumberland North Yorkshire Nottinghamshire Oxfordshire Rutland Shropshire Somerset South Yorkshire Staffordshire Suffolk Surrey Tyne and Wear Warwickshire West Midlands West Sussex West Yorkshire Wiltshire Worcestershire
Northern Ireland	Museums in Northern Ireland
Scotland	Museums in Scotland
Wales	Museums in Wales
British Overseas Territories	Cayman Islands Falkland Islands Gibraltar
Crown Dependencies	Guernsey Jersey Isle of Man

List of museums in County Durham

Contents

Defunct museums

Related Research Articles

References

See also