Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery is a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

History

The first Doncaster Museum opened in 1909 at Beechfield House, utilising only the ground floor of the building, and operated a small zoo at the site from 1955. It moved to a purpose-built site on Chequer Road in 1964 to display collections of natural history, archaeology, local history, fine and decorative art. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

of the extinct species '' Ichthyosaurus anningae'' was identified in the museum's collection in 2008 and formally named in 2015. The building also houses the Regimental Museum of the

King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry The King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army. It officially existed from 1881 to 1968, but its predecessors go back to 1755. In 1968, the regiment was amalgamated with the Somerset and Cornwall ...

. The Roman Danum shield, found in Doncaster in 1971 is on display in the museum. The museum won the "Most Improved Audience Figures" award from Audiences Yorkshire in 2009.

Redevelopment

The former museum site closed on 17 January 2020, with the move to a new venue, originally intended to open in summer 2020. The

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

caused delays to the relocation process. The new building, which cost £14 million, was completed in October 2020. The new museum is called 'The Danum Gallery, Library and Museum' and encloses the Doncaster High School for Girls building. The new museum opened to the public on 29 May 2021. A new rail heritage centre opened on 19 September 2021 within the venue exhibits the Great Northern Railway C1 class locomotive No. 251 and the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...

Class V2 4771 locomotive ''

Green Arrow Green Arrow is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Mort Weisinger and designed by George Papp, he first appeared in ''More Fun Comics'' #73 in November 1941. His secret identity, real name is Olive ...

'' to celebrate the contribution Doncaster made to the rail industry. Both locomotives were built in Doncaster and are on loan from the

National Railway Museum The National Railway Museum is a museum in York forming part of the Science Museum Group. The museum tells the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society. It is the home of the national collection of historically significant r ...

for three years from February 2021. The original site of the museum on Chequer Road is now home to the Doncaster Archives and Local Studies Library.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Buildings and structures in Doncaster Education in Doncaster Museums established in 1964 Art museums and galleries in South Yorkshire Museums in South Yorkshire Local museums in South Yorkshire 1964 establishments in England