We’re open on Friday 15th December between 11am and 3pm
Discover the Wilderspin Story – FREE museum admission!
School Life exhibition about the Barton Church School
Free Talk: “The Church School Archive” at 11am (doors open at 10.30 with refreshments)
Christmases Past in the Chatty Cafe 12pm – 2pm – reminisce and make a card with free refreshments
We are thrilled that our Memory Café Project, launched in 2022, has been awarded a Marsh Award for Museum Learning by the British Museum and the Marsh Charitable Trust.
Our volunteers piloted a selection of objects from our collection to see how they prompted discussion and recollections among older people. Then, Memory Boxes were put together for museum visitors to chat about over a cup of tea, and they were used too with residents from a care home as part of an intergenerational session with children from a local school.
A Chatty Café team has taken the project forward organising monthly drop-ins focussing on a theme for discussion and reminiscence.
The ‘Volunteers for Museum Learning’ Award forms part of a programme of awards presented by the Marsh Charitable Trust in the fields of science, ecology, conservation, heritage, literature and volunteering. The aim is to recognise those volunteers who engage directly with museum visitors in any capacity.
The Museum was the winner for the East Midlands region which involved some of our volunteers attending an award ceremony at the British Museum.
Although the Museum is closed over the winter period as an energy saving measure our volunteers will be organising Open Days during which the Chatty Café will be operating along with other special family activities – and we’re putting together plans for special Chatty Café events over the winter.
Photo caption:
Wilderspin volunteers Ian Wolseley and (right) Jean Cannon and Rose Jackson with Project Coordinator Ali Bodley.
Barton Civic Society explores the pains and gains involved in building conservation projects, sharing the ups and downs of three restoration case studies – including the former Barton Church School, a domestic building project and the former Halls Barton Ropery. The panel discussion starts at 2pm with a brief preview tour of the School looking at its conservation and restoration at 1.30pm.
Museum open 11am – 3pm
Half term fun for the whole family including Wilderspin’s Marvellous Menagerie trail and Schoolroom Puzzles for the whole family!
11am – 3pm, Friday 27 October
Click here for more details about our Winter Warmer Open Days.
Pinocchio
A fabulous family panto written and directed by Paul Tate and performd by Friends at Barton.
Show times:
Thursday 16th 7.30pm
Friday 17th 7.30pm
Saturday 18th 2.30pm & 7.30pm
Sunday 19th 2.30pm
All tickets £5
Tickets can be bought in person from the Museum between 10am and 3pm, Thursdays – Saturdays or by phone on (01652) 635172 Mondays/Tuesdays 10am to 5.30pm, Wednesday 10am – 1pm, and Thursdays/Fridays 10am to 3pm.
Friends at Barton return to the Joseph Wright Hall with a fabulous family panto written and directed by Paul Tate. Click for show times and ticket details.
Join the Civic Society’s Heritage Open Days walk around the town to discover its rich history. More details.
Creativity Unwrapped festival, walks and talks. More details.
Click below for the full Barton Heritage Open Days programme.
Regrettably, after seven successful years at the Museum, the Old School Canteen coffee shop has ceased trading.
The coffee shop was an independent business and despite support from the Museum charitable trust during its period of operation, during Covid, and throughout the current energy crisis, the proprietor decided that the escalating energy and catering cost pressures had become unsustainable.
We’ve been so lucky to have such a superb and unique refreshments offer for our museum visitors, and the awards it’s won are testament to its popularity with many customers from Barton and further afield.
We wish all the team every success in their new jobs and thank them for all their enthusiasm and hard work.
Care of our museum collection is the job of our Collections Group, a small team of dedicated volunteers. We are grateful to ongoing support of Museum Development Yorkshire who provide training and opportunities to liaise with colleagues from other museums. They are supporting us again with training for our volunteers to show them the special cleaning methods and object handling techniques which will help ensure the long-term care of items entrusted to us. We are currently seeking funding to install window blinds to improve protection of items on display following previous guidance support from MDY. Museum Development Yorkshire is part of the York Museums Trust. It provides advice and support for museums in Yorkshire and the Humber and is funded by Arts Council England.
Our Collections Group meets weekly and undertake a variety of tasks including cataloguing and adding items to our Collection as well as research and display design. There’s much to do and new volunteers are welcome – just get in touch if you’d like to know more or see what they do.
Wilderspin National School
Queen Street
Barton-upon-Humber
DN18 5QP
The Wilderspin National School has received help and support from the following organisations:
The Wilderspin National School is an independent museum, registered charity no. 1047187 and a Company Limited by Guarantee no. 2844791.