County Hall, Abingdon, Oxfordshire - geograph

Abingdon County Hall Museum (also known as Abingdon Museum) is a

local museum A local museum or local history museum is a type of museum that shows the historical development of a place/region (local history) using exhibits. These museums usually maintain a collection of historic three-dimensional objects which are exh ...

in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England. The museum is run by Abingdon Town Council and supported by Abingdon Museum Friends, a

registered charity A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a ch ...

. It is a

Grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

Building

The building was built as a county hall for

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

, Abingdon being Berkshire's

county town In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a county town is the most important town or city in a county. It is usually the location of administrative or judicial functions within a county and the place where the county's members of Parliament are elect ...

; it was to serve as the principal sessions house and administrative home for the

Justices A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

of the county. The county hall was designed in the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

style by

Christopher Kempster Christopher Kempster (1627 – 1715) was an English master stonemason and architect who trained with Sir Christopher Wren, working on St Paul's Cathedral. Biography Kempster was from Burford in Oxfordshire, England. He sold Cotswold stone from ...

who trained with

Sir Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...

. It stands on large pilasters with a sheltered area beneath for use as a market or other municipal functions and was completed in 1683.

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

said of the building: "Of the free-standing town halls of England with open ground floors this is the grandest". It housed a courtroom for the

assizes The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes e ...

until 1867 when Abingdon ceded that role to Reading Assize Courts. Following the completion of a major restoration of the building,

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

, visited the town hall, signed the visitor's book and unveiled a plaque in November 1956.

Collections and exhibitions

The museum's collections were started in 1919. The museum has permanent collections and presents temporary exhibitions several times a year. There are also smaller exhibitions on local themes that are changed every month.

The Monks' Map The Abingdon Monks' Map (commonly known as The Monks' Map) is a 16th-century map of the River Thames around the town of Abingdon, Oxfordshire (formerly in Berkshire), England. It is held in the collection of the Abingdon County Hall Museum. The ...

of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

around Abingdon in the 16th century has been held at the town's Guildhall since 1907. A reproduction of the Anglo-Saxon

Abingdon Sword The Abingdon Sword is a late Anglo-Saxon iron sword and hilt believed to be from the late 9th or early 10th century; only the first few inches of the blade remain attached to the hilt. The sword was found in 1874 at Bog Mill (possibly Buggs M ...

, discovered in the river at Abingdon and held by the

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, has also been put on display. In December 2011, with the help of

British Motor Heritage British Motor Heritage Limited (BMH) is a British company specialising in the manufacture of bodies and body parts for historic and classic British cars, and based in Witney, Oxfordshire. History BMH was established in 1975, as a subsidiary of Br ...

, the last MGB Roadster sports car, which came off the production line in Abingdon in 1980 was lifted through a window 30 feet up, for display in the museum's main gallery. From 2010 to 2012, the museum and building underwent a two-year restoration programme, partly funded by the National Lottery. The museum was informally reopened to visitors by

Martha Howe-Douglas Martha Howe-Douglas is an English actress and writer. She is a member of the British Horrible Histories troupe, in which she starred in the TV series ''Horrible Histories''. She also starred in and co-created ''Yonderland'' and ''Ghosts''. S ...

, an actress in the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

television series ''

Horrible Histories ''Horrible Histories'' is an educational entertainment franchise encompassing many media including books, magazines, audio books, stage shows, TV shows, and more. In 2013, Lisa Edwards, UK publishing and commercial director of Scholastic Corpora ...

'', in July 2012 and was officially reopened by the

Duke of Gloucester Duke of Gloucester () is a British royal title (after Gloucester), often conferred on one of the sons of the reigning monarch. The first four creations were in the Peerage of England and the last in the Peerage of the United Kingdom; the curren ...

on 8 March 2013. A new museum café was established in the basement.

References

{{Coord, 51.6700, -1.2815, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Museums established in 1919 Buildings and structures completed in 1683 1683 establishments in England 1919 establishments in England Grade I listed buildings in Oxfordshire Grade I listed museum buildings Local museums in Oxfordshire Abingdon-on-Thames