Somerset Cricket Museum in Taunton

Taunton

Taunton is the county town of Somerset, England. The town, including its suburbs, had an estimated population of 61,400 in 2001. It is the largest town in the shire county of Somerset....

, Somerset

Somerset

The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...

, England is a small museum housing exhibits on the history of cricket with a particular emphasis on the history of Somerset County Cricket Club

Somerset County Cricket Club

Somerset County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Somerset...

.

Building

The building, which is within the confines of the County Ground, is the Old Priory Barn, a Grade II* listed building. It is the only surviving building of the Augustinian Taunton Priory

Taunton Priory

Taunton Priory, or the Priory of St Peter and St Paul, was an Augustinian monastery founded c. 1115 by William Gyffarde , Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of England near Taunton, Somerset, England....

 which was founded about 1115, although there is some evidence that its early use was not as a barn but as a guesthouse or quarters for a Priory
official. The local stone rubble has been repaired with red brick and has a tie-beam

Tie (engineering)

A tie, structural tie, connector, or structural connector is a structural component designed to resist tension. It is the opposite of a strut, which is designed to resist compression. Ties are generally made of galvanized steel...

 roof covered with tile

Tile

A tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, or even glass. Tiles are generally used for covering roofs, floors, walls, showers, or other objects such as tabletops...

s. The door and window openings are made of Bishops Lydeard

Bishops Lydeard

Bishops Lydeard is a village and civil parish located in Somerset, England, bypassed, since 1967, by the A358 road and West Somerset Railway north-west of Taunton in the district of Taunton Deane...

 stone. The exact dates of the building are disputed, but is argued to be from the late 15th or early 16th century, and replacing an earlier 13th or 14th-century building on the site, but incorporating some of the earlier building. It was a Scheduled Ancient Monument

Scheduled Ancient Monument

In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a 'nationally important' archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorized change. The various pieces of legislation used for legally protecting heritage assets from damage and destruction are grouped under the term...

 until 1999 when it was descheduled. The building was once used as a chapel by Frenchmen, possibly prisoners during the French Revolutionary Wars

French Revolutionary Wars

The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...

 or Napoleonic Wars

Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

.

History

The Old Priory Barn was purchased by the Somerset CCC Supporters Club when it became available in 1979, as the cricket club was unable to afford it at the time. Over the next ten years the building was restored, and in April 1989 the museum was officially opened to the public.

Collection

The exhibits and displays in the museum primarily cover the cricket club's history, including Test match

Test cricket

Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...

 players such as Ian Botham

Ian Botham

Sir Ian Terence Botham OBE is a former England Test cricketer and Test team captain, and current cricket commentator. He was a genuine all-rounder with 14 centuries and 383 wickets in Test cricket, and remains well-known by his nickname "Beefy"...

 and Marcus Trescothick

Marcus Trescothick

Marcus Edward Trescothick MBE is an English cricketer. He plays first-class cricket for Somerset County Cricket Club, and represented England in 76 Test matches and 123 One Day Internationals. A left-handed opening batsman, he made his first-class debut for Somerset in 1993 and quickly established...

. It also has a section devoted to the England women's cricket team, as the County Ground is their headquarters. The museum also hosts a collection of I Zingari

I Zingari

I Zingari are English and Australian amateur cricket clubs.-History:...

memorabilia, a club with which current chairman Charles Clive Ponsonby-Fane has strong family links.