Dudley Museum and Art Gallery was a public

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 ...

and

art gallery An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The lon ...

located in the town centre of

Dudley Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the ...

in the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

, England. It was opened in 1883, situated within buildings on St James's Road, and remained at that site until its closure in 2016. Some of the museum collections have since been relocated to the Dudley Archives centre on Tipton Road.

History

The building was originally planned as a Free Library and School of Art by Dudley Borough Council. The foundation stone was laid on 3 July 1883 by

Earl Beauchamp Earl Beauchamp () was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The peerage was created in 1815 for William Lygon, 1st Baron Beauchamp, along with the subsidiary title Viscount Elmley, in the County of Worcester. He had already been creat ...

, the Lord Lieutenant of Worcestershire. Although an art gallery was included in the design, it did not open for another five years; the gallery was officially opened on 1 August 1888 by Mayor of Dudley

Benjamin Hingley Sir Benjamin Hingley, 1st Baronet, (11 September 1830 – 13 May 1905) was an English ironmaster and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1895. Life Hingley was born at Cradley, Worcestershire, the son of Noah Hing ...

. In 1906, Dudley Council entered an agreement with the Dudley Geographical Society to take over their collection of fossils and other materials with a view to displaying them in a museum in the town. In 1911, it was announced that this collection had been installed in what had been the lending department of the Free Library with a view of displaying it to the public in 1912. The Brooke Robinson collection, bequeathed to the town by former MP and coroner for Dudley,

Brooke Robinson Brooke Robinson (1836–1911) was a British Conservative Party politician, who was MP for Dudley and held a number of public posts including that of County Coroner for Dudley. He also was an art collector and benefactor whose legacy was the Town ...

, and originally kept in a purpose-built room in the nearby town hall, was moved to the museum in 1979.

Closure and movement of collection

The Museum and Art Gallery was closed by

Dudley Council Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council is the local authority for Dudley metropolitan borough. It is more commonly known as Dudley Council or Dudley MBC. The present authority was formed as a result of further reorganisation of local government ...

on 22 December 2016 as part of cost-cutting efforts. A portion of the museum collection was later moved to the Dudley Archives centre on Tipton Road, under the name 'Dudley Museum at The Archives', opening to the public in September 2017. The new facility also houses the organisational headquarters of the aspiring Black Country Geopark, a project organised by local councils in an attempt to achieve UNESCO

Geopark A geopark is a protected area with internationally significant geology within which sustainable development is sought and which includes tourism, conservation, education and research concerning not just geology but other relevant sciences. In 20 ...

status for the region's geological heritage.

Permanent exhibitions

Geology

The

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...

exhibits were the 'most important collection' at the museum and were drawn from a collection of approximately 15,000

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s from the local area including nearby

Wren's Nest The Wren's Nest is a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in the Dudley Metropolitan Borough, north west of the town centre of Dudley, in the West Midlands of England. It is one of the most important geological locations in Britain. ...

hill and Wren's Nest. The two geology exhibits are 'Dudley Unearthed' and 'Fantastic Fossils'. The 'Dudley Unearthed' area contained a set of interpretative displays that related the geology of the area to the history of the industrial revolution, with regularly changing features on the geology of both the local area and the rest of the world, including information on Dudley Volcano. Fossils formed by the eruption of the volcano around 315 million years ago are also on display. 'Fantastic Fossils' showcased

Silurian The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the shortest period of the Paleozo ...

and

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, million years ago. The name ''Carbonifero ...

fossils, with examples of fossilised corals and shellfish,

Crinoids Crinoids are marine animals that make up the class Crinoidea. Crinoids that are attached to the sea bottom by a stalk in their adult form are commonly called sea lilies, while the unstalked forms are called feather stars or comatulids, which are ...

Gastropods The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. Ther ...

Trilobites Trilobites (; meaning "three lobes") are extinct marine arthropods that form the class Trilobita. Trilobites form one of the earliest-known groups of arthropods. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the At ...

Cephalopods A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan class Cephalopoda (Greek plural , ; "head-feet") such as a squid, octopus, cuttlefish, or nautilus. These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head, an ...

, worm tubes and fossilised specimens from the forest canopy and ground covering and primitive plants.

Return of the Dinosaurs

'Return of the Dinosaurs' opened in 2007 and was distinguished by several large models of various species of dinosaurs, including

Baryonyx ''Baryonyx'' () is a genus of theropod dinosaur which lived in the Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous period, about 130–125 million years ago. The first skeleton was discovered in 1983 in the Smokejack Clay Pit, of Surrey, England, in se ...

and one of the earliest dinosaurs,

Thecodontosaurus ''Thecodontosaurus'' ("socket-tooth lizard") is a genus of herbivorous basal sauropodomorph dinosaur that lived during the late Triassic period (Rhaetian age). Its remains are known mostly from Triassic "fissure fillings" in South England. ''The ...

The Brooke Robinson Museum

In 1911, local MP

bequeathed his collection of paintings, furniture, ceramics, enamels and medals to Dudley. The objects were on display in a dedicated room in the museum which contained a miscellaneous collection of 17th, 18th and 19th century British and European paintings, furniture and ceramics, together with oriental ceramics, Japanese

netsuke A is a miniature sculpture, originating in 17th century Japan. Initially a simply-carved button fastener on the cords of an box, later developed into ornately sculpted objects of craftsmanship. History Traditionally, Japanese clothing – ...

and

inro An is a traditional Japanese case for holding small objects, suspended from the (sash) worn around the waist when wearing a kimono. They are often highly decorated with various materials such as lacquer and various techniques such as , and ar ...

, Bilston enamels, commemorative medals, Greek, Roman and Egyptian pottery and personal memorabilia relating to Brooke Robinson and his two wives.

Duncan Edwards and local heroes

The room featured a great deal of memorabilia connected to local football legend and Busby Babe

Duncan Edwards Duncan Edwards (1 October 1936 – 21 February 1958) was an English footballer who played for Manchester United and the England national team. He was one of the Busby Babes, the young United team formed under manager Matt Busby in the mid ...

, who was born in the town in 1936, and won two

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

title medals with

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

and was capped 18 times by the

England national football team The England national football team has represented England in international Association football, football since the first international match in 1872. It is controlled by The Football Association (FA), the governing body for football in Engl ...

until he died from injuries sustained in the Munich air disaster in February 1958, when still only 21. There were plans to introduce other local sporting heroes.

Fine art collection

The museum also held a large collection of

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwork ...

, including oil paintings, watercolours, and prints, which were rotated in and out of display. Among these were works by local artist

Percy Shakespeare Percy Shakespeare (28 February 1906 – 25 May 1943
CWGC Casualty Record, Brighton County Bor ...

References

External links

Dudley MBC: Dudley Museum & Art GalleryHistory of the museum, and discussion of closure
at Lost Museums? {{DEFAULTSORT:Dudley Museum And Art Gallery Defunct museums in England Museums in the West Midlands (county) Buildings and structures in Dudley Art museums and galleries in the West Midlands (county) Decorative arts museums in England Geology museums in England Fossil museums Local museums in the West Midlands (county) Art museums established in 1883 Museums established in 1883 1883 establishments in England Museums disestablished in 2016 Paleontology in the United Kingdom