Launch of new £30,000 Knaresborough Heritage Centre after four years of incredible work by volunteers

The family-friendly £30,000 new facility will bring Knaresborough’s extraordinary and wide-ranging history to life as never before from its attractive home on the town’s High Street.

Knaresborough Town Museum Group (TMG) was set up in October 2019 to campaign for a Town Museum.

Over the last five years volunteers have staged history and archaeology festivals in Knaresborough, as well as fundraising through market stalls and other events with book sales and tombola prizes.

The determined effort by this small group of people who believed in the project received a major boost when it won a series of grants.

Knaresborough Town Council and the George A Moore Foundation have been particularly generous benefactors, funding vital electrical and building refurbishment work at the former print shop at 12 High Street.

The end result is a stunning new facility to be proud of.

Kathy Allday, chair of KMA, said: “The Heritage Centre is the first of its kind – by the community for the community.

“Knaresborough has a wealth of archaeology that even local people aren’t always aware of.

“We’ll display artefacts which show that people have been living in Knaresborough for an astonishing 4,000 years.”

A rolling programme of events will begin with an exhibition running five months which will showcase the unique geology of the Nidd Gorge, as well as the archaeology of the town and surrounding area.

The new Heritage Centre also contains a visitor information desk and a gift shop selling rare prints of historic Knaresborough amongst other items.

Workshops and guided walks are on offer,and there’s a schedule of monthly talks by guest speakers.

The dedicated children’s zone offers dressing up clothes with mirror, a small library and puzzle board as well as a Victorian school desk.

Themed activity packs are being created for children, linked to each exhibition.

And younger visitors will be able to follow Gallery Gus and Museum Maud, KMA’s time travelling characters, who explain the exhibitions at child height.

The first exhibition will include:

Prehistoric artefacts such as a neolithic ceremonial hand axe and Iron Age beehive quernstone

A breathtaking film using photos from the excavation of Knaresborough Castle in the 1920s which shows men in plus fours hanging over the nearby cliff edge

Articles on loan from Edward and Richard Harrison who own a nationally important North Yorkshire social history collection and who are very supportive of the Heritage Centre

Archaeology from Scriven Park including a capitol from Scriven Hall (which burnt down in the 1950s) and munitions and personal artefacts from the former WW2 army and Prisoner of War camps

Several giant club moss fossils and other geological exhibits discovered locally

A second exhibition later this year will explore the town’s proud history of linen weaving, which dominated the local economy for nearly 200 years.

Although the Heritage Centre is entirely staffed by volunteers, the annual running costs including rent and utilities’ bills comes to five figures, so adult visitors are being asked to make a minimum donation of £2 each.

Children under 16 go free but should always be accompanied.

The Heritage Centre opens on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 10am until 4pm.

More information: https://knaresboroughtownmuseum.org.uk/