Cambridge & County Folk Museum - geograph

The Museum of Cambridge, formerly known as the Cambridge & County Folk Museum, is a museum located in Castle Street in central

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

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 ...

. It is housed in the former White Horse Inn, a Grade II listed 16th century former

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

that closed in 1934. The Museum first opened in 1936, following a 1933 exhibition organised by the Cambridgeshire Federation of Women's Institutes, entitled 'A Festival of Olden Times, held in Cambridge's Guildhall. Queen Mary visited the museum in 1938 and donated two exhibits, a miniature table and a tea caddy, the following year. Reginald C Lambeth was the assistant curator in 1939. He wrote a series old articles in the East Anglian Magazine. In this 1939's annual report it stated that the collection had risen to over 1,900 exhibits. In 1945 it was reported ''The museum is housed in an old coaching inn the White Horse and the quaint rooms afford an ideal setting for the collection. The building will be required for a town improvement scheme and the museum committee will have to find a new (and it is hoped), permanent quarters in the near future.'' Enid Porter, a leading authority on Cambridgeshire culture, history, customs and beliefs and a pioneer of oral history, was Curator of the Museum from 1947 to 1976. In 1988 it was reported that the museum might have to close as it was running out of money. The museum presents the lives of the people of Cambridge and its surrounding area, the county of

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the ...

and the Fens from 1700 onwards. The collection includes more than 20,000 objects reflecting the social history of Cambridge and Cambridgeshire, including applied art, coins, costumes, decorative art, fine art, hobbies, law and order, medals, medicine, music, social history, textiles and toys. The museum also holds oil paintings by local artis
Mary Charlotte Greene
(1860-1951), a relative of author

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...

, as well as inn signs by another local artist
Richard Hopkins Leach
(1794-1851). The museum also administers Capturing Cambridge, a website that crowd sources local history, documenting stories and memories across Cambridge and the surrounding area street by street. The museum is an independent charity, governed by a board of trustees. In 2020, as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the museum launched a fundraising campaign with the support of Cambridge MP

Daniel Zeichner Daniel Stephen Zeichner (born 9 November 1956) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Cambridge since 2015. A member of the Labour Party, he defeated Liberal Democrat Julian Huppert before retaining his sea ...

. In May 2021, the museum announced the success of its fundraising campaign and re-opened to the public. The museum was shortlisted for the 2006

Gulbenkian Prize Gulbenkian Prize is a series of prizes awarded annually by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. The main Gulbenkian Prize was established in 1976 as the Gulbenkian Science Prize awarded to Portuguese individuals and organizations. Starting 2012, th ...

. On the 27 August 2021 the museum began a temporary exhibition looking into the

town and gown Town and gown are two distinct communities of a university town; 'town' being the non-academic population and 'gown' metonymically being the university community, especially in ancient seats of learning such as Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, and St ...

split and its relationship with public spaces.

References

External links

Museum websiteCapturing Cambridge website

Entry
in the

24 Hour Museum Culture24, originally the 24 Hour Museum, is a British charity which publishes websites, ''Culture24'', ''Museum Crush'' and ''Show Me'', about visual culture and heritage in the United Kingdom, as well as supplying data and support services to ...

Friends of the Museum of Cambridge
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cambridge and County Folk Museum Folk museums in the United Kingdom Decorative arts museums in England Museums in Cambridge Local museums in Cambridgeshire

See also

References

External links