![]() The Grade II* listed town hall, which houses the St Albans Museum + Gallery | |
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Established | 1898 |
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Location | Town Hall, St Peter's Street, St Albans AL1 3DH |
Website | stalbansmuseums.org.uk/ |
St Albans Museums is a collection of museums and historic buildings in the city of St Albans, Hertfordshire, England [1] that is run by St Albans City and District Council. [2] It oversees St Albans Museum + Gallery and the Verulamium Museum, [2] and also the Hypocaust at Verulamium, St Albans' medieval Clock Tower, and the ruins of Sopwell Priory.
St Albans Museum + Gallery presents the history and art of St Albans. There are various galleries to explore and the exhibitions change often. It has hosted national touring exhibitions as well as locally curated exhibitions. The museum sometimes includes art exhibitions that are curated by the University of Hertfordshire with which the museums have a partnership. [3]
The museum was founded as the Hertfordshire County Museum in 1898. Its Hatfield Road venue was closed to the public in September 2015 as part of project to regenerate the Old Town Hall as a Museum and Gallery hosting changing exhibits and exhibitions. Although the previous building had less space than the current one it still had a wonderful display of artifacts from the post Roman era,Saxon brooches, coins,carved stonework such as part of a church window frame depicting a Saxon warrior,plus Norman, later medieval and Tudor items on display. The town hall exhibits are only a fraction of what the previous museum had to offer and are now in storage. Although new and never seen before exhibits are due to make an appearance at some point. The new Museum+ Gallery opened in 2018 in the old town hall [a grade 11 Listed building] in St Albans city centre. [4]
Verulamium Museum is situated in what was once the forum of the walled city of Verulamium, [5] next to Verulamium Park. The museum contains information about the Iron Age and Roman periods of St Albans' history. The later history of the settlement is presented at the St Albans Museum + Gallery. [4]
The Verulamium Museum was established following the excavations carried out by Mortimer Wheeler and his wife, Tessa Wheeler, both of them renowned archaeologists, during the 1930s. It was extended in 1996–97. During the building work, an excavation of the site took place.
St Albans is a city located in Hertfordshire, England. It was originally founded as Verlamion a settlement belonging to the Catuvellauni. It was subsequently transformed into the Roman settlement of Verulamium from where it grew into a municipium around AD 50.
Hatfield is a town and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, in the borough of Welwyn Hatfield. It had a population of 29,616 in 2001, 39,201 at the 2011 Census, and 41,265 at the 2021 Census. The settlement is of Saxon origin. Hatfield House, home of the Marquess of Salisbury, forms the nucleus of the old town. From the 1930s when de Havilland opened a factory, until the 1990s when British Aerospace closed it, aircraft design and manufacture employed more people there than any other industry. Hatfield was one of the post-war New Towns built around London and has much modernist architecture from the period. The University of Hertfordshire is based there.
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south and Buckinghamshire to the west. The largest settlement is Watford, and the county town is Hertford.
St Albans is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, 20 miles (32 km) north-west of London, 8 miles (13 km) south-west of Welwyn Garden City and 11 miles (18 km) south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman road of Watling Street for travellers heading north and became the city of Verulamium. It is within the London commuter belt and the Greater London Built-up Area.
Verulamium was a town in Roman Britain. It was sited southwest of the modern city of St Albans in Hertfordshire, England. A large portion of the Roman city remains unexcavated, being now park and agricultural land, although due to ploughing on the privately owned agricultural half of the city a lot of damage has been done, as proven by parts of mosaic floors that have been found on the surface, and results of ground penetrating radar show outlines of buildings as smudges rather than clearly defined walls like those protected by the parkland. Part of the Roman city has been built upon, such as St Michael's church and other parts along the centre of the medieval village. The major ancient Roman route Watling Street passed through the city. Much of the site and its environs is now a scheduled monument.
St Albans Cathedral, officially the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban, also known as "the Abbey", is a Church of England cathedral in St Albans, England.
St Albans, also known as the City and District of St Albans, is a local government district with city status in Hertfordshire, England. Its council is based in St Albans, the largest settlement in the district. The district also includes the town of Harpenden and several villages. The district borders North Hertfordshire, Welwyn Hatfield, Hertsmere, Watford, Three Rivers, Dacorum, and Central Bedfordshire.
Hertfordshire is an English county, founded in the Norse–Saxon wars of the 9th century, and developed through commerce serving London. It is a land-locked county that was several times the seat of Parliament. From origins in brewing and papermaking, through aircraft manufacture, the county has developed a wider range of industry in which pharmaceuticals, financial services and film-making are prominent. Today, with a population slightly over 1 million, Hertfordshire services, industry and commerce dominate the economy, with fewer than 2000 people working in agriculture, forestry and fishing.
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 Albans is a constituency in Hertfordshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Daisy Cooper, a Liberal Democrat.
Sopwell Priory was a Benedictine nunnery founded around 1140 on the site of an ancient hermitage in Sopwell, Hertfordshire, England. After the Dissolution, the priory was torn down and a Tudor manor house constructed in its place.
Sir Richard Lee (1513–1575) was a military engineer in the service of Henry VIII of England, Edward VI and Elizabeth I. He was a commander of Henry VIII and appointed surveyor of the King's works. Lee was member of parliament for Hertfordshire in 1545. He was the first English engineer to be knighted.
Verulamium Park is a park in St Albans, Hertfordshire. Set in over 100 acres (0.40 km2) of parkland, Verulamium Park was purchased from the Earl of Verulam in 1929 by the then City Corporation. Today the park is owned and operated by St Albans City and District Council.
Sopwell House is a historic Georgian country house, now a luxury 128 bedroom hotel, country club & spa located south of St Albans, Hertfordshire, England. It gained fame as the gathering place for the England national football team before international football events. It has also hosted other club and international football teams. The facilities include a conference & banqueting centre, 2 restaurants, 2 bars, gym, dance studio, and spa.
St Michael's Church is a Church of England parish church in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England. Much of the building is late 10th or early 11th century, making it the most significant surviving Anglo-Saxon building in the county. It is located near the centre of the site of Roman Verulamium to the west of the modern city.
Isca, variously specified as Isca Augusta or Isca Silurum, was the site of a Roman legionary fortress and settlement or vicus, the remains of which lie beneath parts of the present-day suburban town of Caerleon in the north of the city of Newport in South Wales. The site includes Caerleon Amphitheatre and is protected by Cadw.
Geoffrey de Gorham, sometimes called Geoffrey of Dunstable or of Le Mans, was a Norman scholar who became Abbot of St Albans Abbey, 1119 to 1146.
St Albans Town Hall, sometimes known as the Old Town Hall or The Courthouse, is a 19th-century building in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England. The building, which now accommodates the St Albans Museum, is a Grade II* listed building.
National Cycle Route 61 is part of the National Cycle Network managed by the charity Sustrans. It runs for 34 miles from Maidenhead (Berkshire) to Rye House (Hertfordshire) via Uxbridge, Watford, St Albans, Hatfield, Welwyn Garden City and Hertford in the United Kingdom.