Abergavenny Museum is a museum

Museum

A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

 situated in the grounds of Abergavenny Castle

Abergavenny Castle

Abergavenny Castle is a castle in the market town of Abergavenny, Monmouthshire in south east Wales.- A naturally fortified site :The castle was sited above the River Usk overlooking the river valley and the confluence of the rivers Gavenny and Usk. The site would have been naturally defensible in...

, Abergavenny

Abergavenny

Abergavenny , meaning Mouth of the River Gavenny, is a market town in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located 15 miles west of Monmouth on the A40 and A465 roads, 6 miles from the English border. Originally the site of a Roman fort, Gobannium, it became a medieval walled town within the Welsh Marches...

, Monmouthshire

Monmouthshire

Monmouthshire is a county in south east Wales. The name derives from the historic county of Monmouthshire which covered a much larger area. The largest town is Abergavenny. There are many castles in Monmouthshire .-Historic county:...

, south east Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

.

The museum is housed in the square 'keep' on the high point of the castle

Castle

A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...

 motte

Motte-and-bailey

A motte-and-bailey is a form of castle, with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised earthwork called a motte, accompanied by an enclosed courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade...

, in the hunting lodge built for the Marquess of Abergavenny

Marquess of Abergavenny

Marquess of Abergavenny , in the County of Monmouth, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom that was created on 14 January 1876, along with the title Earl of Lewes , in the County of Sussex, for the 5th Earl of Abergavenny, a member of the Nevill family.The 1st Marquess's ancestor, the de...

 in 1819 on the site. The castle grounds overlook the River Usk

River Usk

The River Usk rises on the northern slopes of the Black Mountain of mid-Wales, in the easternmost part of the Brecon Beacons National Park. Initially it flows north into Usk Reservoir, then east by Sennybridge to Brecon before turning southeast to flow by Talybont-on-Usk, Crickhowell and...

 and Castle Meadows and is in Abergavenny town centre itself.

History of the museum

The museum has been mooted early in the 20th century but action to establish it only took place in the late 1950s at a period when parts of the old town of Abergavenny were undergoing some redevelopment and some interesting historical and archaeological artifacts

Artifact (archaeology)

An artifact or artefact is "something made or given shape by man, such as a tool or a work of art, esp an object of archaeological interest"...

 came to light and local residents realised that some action had to be taken to prevent these being lost forever and provide a home for similar future finds. The action of local volunteers established the museum on its present site.

The collection

The museum houses a collection of objects of local significance ranging from old and early photographs of the landscape and town, archaeological finds from when the new 1960s Post Office and telephone exchange was built on part of the site of the Roman fort of Gobannium

Gobannium

Gobannium was a Roman fort and civil settlement or Castra established by the Roman legions invading what was to become Roman Wales and lies today under the market town of Abergavenny, Monmouthshire in south east Wales.- Documentary evidence :...

 to earlier prehistoric finds dating from the Mesolithic

Mesolithic

The Mesolithic is an archaeological concept used to refer to certain groups of archaeological cultures defined as falling between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic....

, Bronze Age

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

 and Iron Age

Iron Age

The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...

 such as axe heads and arrow heads, the medieval and Tudor period

Tudor period

The Tudor period usually refers to the period between 1485 and 1603, specifically in relation to the history of England. This coincides with the rule of the Tudor dynasty in England whose first monarch was Henry VII...

s and includes fine examples of costume, a Welsh kitchen of the 1890s, a saddlers shop from 1900 - 1930 and Basil Jones old grocer

Grocer

A grocer is a bulk seller of food. Beginning as early as the 14th century, a grocer was a dealer in comestible dry goods such as spices, pepper, sugar, and cocoa, tea and coffee...

s shop http://www.gtj.org.uk/en/item1/7846 from Abergavenny town alongside nationally valuable collections associated with Father Ignatius and Lady Llanover.

Liaison with schools

Abergavenny Museum works closely with local schools and educational establishments. It provides a range of workshops covering the Celts and Romans locally to the Victorian kitchen.

External links

• Abergavenny Museum website
• Monmouthshire County Council website information on the museum
• Gathering the Jewels Welsh website — some of the artifacts held at Abergavenny Museum
• Museum Wales on a rare Roman find from near Abergavenny
• Museum Wales on coins found near Abergavenny
• Roman Gobannium on the Roman Britain website