Guildford Museum is a museum is in the town of Guildford

Guildford

Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...

, Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

, England. The museum can be found on Quarry Street, a road running just off the High Street. Part of the Museum is housed in the gatehouse of Guildford Castle

Guildford Castle

Guildford Castle is in Guildford, Surrey, England. It is thought to have been built shortly after the 1066 invasion of England by William the Conqueror.-Construction and development:...

. It is run by Guildford Borough Council, and offers free entry between 11am - 4.45pm Monday to Saturday. It is closed Sundays and on Christmas Day.

History

The Museums collection originally grew from the collections of the Surrey Archaeological Society, which was founded in 1852. From the outset the society collected objects from excavations and private donations, as well as accepting loans from private individuals. These artefacts were first stored with the societies various Honorary Secretaries in a number of locations in London. In 1871 it was suggested that the Societies’ collections be moved to a more permanent base in Croydon

Croydon

Croydon is a town in South London, England, located within the London Borough of Croydon to which it gives its name. It is situated south of Charing Cross...

 (then Surrey, now a part of London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

) and housed in the Croydon Library and Scientific Institute. Part of the attraction of the move was that the institute offered free accommodation for the collection, provided glass cases for display and offered to produce a catalogue of the collection. This was modestly described as ‘very advantages’ by the Societies committee.

However the Croydon institute failed to live up to its promise to provide adequate care for the collections, and when the Honorary Secretary, Mr. Mill Stephenson, visited the collection in 1892 he found it in a ‘deplorable condition’. Glass cases were smashed, locks were broken and objects were damaged or even missing. The secretary remonstrated with the institutes librarian/ curator and seems to have been unsurprised when the Society was asked to vacate the premises.
The Society now had to look for a new premise for their collection, and this was duly offered by Guildford Borough Council, who in 1885 had purchased Guildford Castle and its grounds, and opened them up as a public park and Bowling Green. The grounds included a row of cottages built upon the castles old gatehouse. These cottages were offered to the Surrey Archaeological Society in 1898 (once the original tenants have moved out) for a new museum and library, with an annual rent of £12 pa. As part of the deal the society agreed to open up the museum to the public on at least one afternoon a week.

In 1903 Mr Fredrick H. Elsley was appointed joint Librarian and Curator of the Societies collection of books, manuscripts and artefacts. He was offered an annual honorarium of £5 per year. This had risen to £25 per year by the time of his death, in 1944.

In 1912 the Museum became known as ‘The Guildford Borough and Surrey Archaeological Society Museum’, and was paid for jointly by the Society and town council, and free public entry began to be offered on three afternoons a week. In 1933 the local council took over the full running of the Museum, with the Societies Collection on near permanent loan.

Collections

Guildford Museum cares for over 75,000 objects, dating from c. 500,000 BC (the Lower Palaeolithic) to the modern day. The Museums’ collection contains objects either from, or in some why related to, Guildford, and to a lesser extent Surrey. The Museums current collection policy means that it would be unlikely to accept objects from outside this area.
The collections can be sub-divided into four sections –

Archaeology
The Museums Archaeology Collection dates back to 1852, when the Surrey Archaeology Society was founded and began collecting objects, although very few have been in the collection for more than 100 years. The Archaeology Collection is unusual from other Museum collections in that not all the objects are owned by the Museum, many are on near-permanent loan from the Surrey Archaeological Society. Highlights of the collection include sceptre handles and religious headdresses’ from the Romano-British

Romano-British

Romano-British culture describes the culture that arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest of AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, a people of Celtic language and...

 temple site at Wanborough, a large collection of 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....

 handaxes from Farnham and the full excavation assemblage from the Tudor site of Farnborough Hill Convent, which was published by the Museum under the title ‘Pots and Potters in Tudor Hampshire’.

Local History
The local History collection dates from 1905 when the Museum, joint run by the Surrey Archaeological Society and Guildford borough Council, began to collect social history objects. In 1907 the Museum accepted a donation from Miss Gertrude Jekyll

Gertrude Jekyll

Gertrude Jekyll was an influential British garden designer, writer, and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the UK, Europe and the USA and contributed over 1,000 articles to Country Life, The Garden and other magazines.-Early life:...

, a celebrated Garden designer, of her whole collection of objects relating to ‘Old Surrey’. Much of this donation is still on display in the Museum. Highlights of the collection include a napkin featuring an embroidered portrait of Queen Elizabeth I (and which is believed to have been used by her), fragments of a zeppelin bomb dropped on the St Catherine’s area of Guildford in World War 1 and a green velvet suit purchased in Carnaby Street

Carnaby Street

Carnaby Street is a pedestrianised shopping street in London, United Kingdom, located in the Soho district, near Oxford Street and Regent Street. It is home to numerous fashion and lifestyle retailers, including a large number of independent fashion boutiques...

, London, in the 1970s.

Needlework
Guildford Museum also cares for a specialist Needlework Collection, highlights of which include 18th and 19th century samplers, a ‘lending quilt’ from a local parish church and a wide selection of Surrey Smocks (Smocks warn by farm labourers in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries).

Art
As a result of a merger between Guildford Museum and Guildford House

Guildford House

Guildford House is a historic house at 155 High Street, Guildford, Surrey, England. Built in 1660, it is currently a municipal museum and art gallery...

 Art Gallery (in June 2009) staff at the museum now also care for Guildford Borough Councils art collection, which includes a number of works by Guildford born artist John Russell

John Russell (painter)

John Russell was an English painter renowned for his portrait work in oils and pastels, and as a writer and teacher of painting techniques.-Life and work:...

.

Location and building

Guildford Museum is located on Quarry Street, Guildford, almost opposite St Marys Church, the oldest surviving building in the town (c1000 years old).
The first building the Museum occupied on the site was Castle Arch, which the Museum moved into in 1898 and whose foundations incorporate the gatehouse to Guildford Castle. This building was extended in 1911, when an extension was built in the Castle Arch gardens to house the Gertrude Jekyll collection of ‘Old Surrey Life’ artefacts. The Museum was again extended in 1927 when the Borough council purchased 48 Quarry Street, a 19th century town house, and offered to convert the building and land adjacent to it into a munument room for the Archaeological Societies records office.

Other sites managed by the museum

The Museum is also responsible for the management of Guildford Castle

Guildford Castle

Guildford Castle is in Guildford, Surrey, England. It is thought to have been built shortly after the 1066 invasion of England by William the Conqueror.-Construction and development:...

, The medieval Undercroft on Guildford High Street, The medieval Great Barn at Wanborough and a Victorian School Room adjacent to the Museum. In June 2009 the Museum and Local Art Gallery merged.

Exhibitions

The Museum hosts a program of constantly changing temporary exhibitions on site. Recent exhibitions include ‘Hidden House Histories’, detailing the history of objects hidden in houses as a form of superstition, and ‘The Women’s Royal Army Corps in Guildford’, which covered the time the WRAC

Women's Royal Army Corps

The Women's Royal Army Corps was the corps to which all women in the British Army except medical, dental and veterinary officers and chaplains and nurses belonged from 1949 to 1992.-History:The...

 was headquartered in Guildford (1949–1992).
The current exhibition, entitled ‘A Few of My Favourite Things’, features objects chosen by local people from the Museums reserve collections. Guest Curators include Anne Milton

Anne Milton

Anne Frances Milton is a British Conservative Party politician and former nurse who has been the Member of Parliament for Guildford since 2005. After service on the Health Select Committee, in November 2006 she was appointed Shadow Minister for Tourism. In July 2007 she was appointed Shadow...

 MP

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

, the Bishop of Guildford

Bishop of Guildford

The Bishop of Guildford is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Guildford in the Province of Canterbury.The title was first created as a suffragan see in the Diocese of Winchester in 1874. The suffragan bishop of Guildford assisted the Bishop of Winchester in overseeing the diocese...

 Christopher Hill

Christopher Hill

Christopher Hill may refer to:*Christopher Hill , English bishop*Christopher J. Hill, International Relations scholar, Professor and Director of the Cambridge Centre of International Studies*Christopher R. Hill, U.S. Ambassador in Iraq...

 and the High Sheriff of Surrey

High Sheriff of Surrey

-List of High Sheriffs of Surrey:The list of known High Sheriffs of Surrey extends back to 1066 At various times the High Sheriff of Surrey was also High Sheriff of Sussex -1066-1228:...

, Elizabeth Toulson. Objects on display include a 400,000 year old hand axe from Swanscombe in Kent and a napkin used by Queen Elizabeth I which features her embroidered portrait and an image of St George slaying the Dragon.

Public services

Entrance to the Museum is free, as is access to the museums collections (usually by appointment).
The Museum offers a finds identification service to members of the public who bring in an object to be identified and a school loans box service for schools and other groups eager to use objects during lessons, meetings, etc. A Victorian School room adjacent to the museum offers a Victorian teaching experience for School Children aged 6 – 12.
Museum staff can also be booked to give talks on Guildford and Surrey History.