 The museum building | |
 | |
| Established | 1835 |
|---|---|
| Location | Museum Street, Saffron Waldon, Essex CB10 1BN, England |
| Coordinates | 52°01′32″N0°14′27″E / 52.02543°N 0.24079°E |
| Type | Local museum |
| Owner | Saffron Walden Museum Society |
| Employees | 50 volunteers |
| Website | saffronwaldenmuseum |
Saffron Walden Museum is a local museum in Saffron Walden, Essex, east England. [1]
The museum is one of the oldest purpose-built museums in the United Kingdom. [2] It is located in Museum Street within the town of Saffron Walden, set in an enclosed grass meadow near the ruins of the 12-century Walden Castle.
The museum's collections cover ancient cultures, archaeology, ceramics and glass, costumes and textiles, geology, furniture and woodwork, social and local history, natural history, and world cultures. [3] The collections also includes fine art paintings and sculptures. [4]
The museum has over 50 volunteers. [5] The Saffron Walden Museum Society is voluntary charitable organisation that supports the museum and owns the building. [6] It provides talks and events for members.
Since the 19th century the museum has been home to a mummified child dating from the 3rd century AD. [7] The collections include an early English "rail and rope" bed radiocarbon dated to the latter half of the 15th-century. The bed was donated to the museum in 1882 by William Murray Tuke (a son of Samuel Tuke), who lived at The Vineyard at Saffron Walden, and was noted by the furniture historian Fred Roe in 1905. [8]
