Weston Park Museum is a museum in Sheffield,

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. It is one mile west of Sheffield city centre within

Weston Park Weston Park is a country house in Weston-under-Lizard, Staffordshire, England, set in more than of park landscaped by Capability Brown. The park is located north-west of Wolverhampton, and north-east of Telford, close to the border with ...

. It is Sheffield's largest museum and is housed in a Grade II* listed building and managed by

Museums Sheffield Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust, known as Museums Sheffield is a charity created in 1998 to run Sheffield City Council’s non-industrial museums and galleries. Museums Sheffield currently manages three sites in the city: Graves Art Gall ...

. Until 2006 it was called Sheffield City Museum and Mappin Art Gallery.

History

The museum opened in 1875 in Weston House, whose grounds later became the park. A neoclassical extension, in the Ionic order, was added in 1887. The Mappin Art Gallery was built to house the collection of work bequeathed to the city by the Rotherham businessman John Newton Mappin. Weston Hall was demolished in the 1930s and a purpose-built structure, adjoining the Mappin Art Gallery, and funded in part by donations from local businessman J. G. Graves, was completed in 1937. For much of its history the complex was officially known as the Sheffield City Museum and Mappin Art Gallery. The museum contained Sheffield's archaeology, natural history, decorative art and social history collections. The Mappin Art Gallery held Mappin's own collection and temporary art exhibitions. In December 1940 the Mappin Art Gallery suffered a direct hit in the Sheffield Blitz, destroying a significant part of the building and damaging much of the rest. During the 1950s and 1960s the museum remained open to the public, whilst the Mappin Art Gallery was left in a partially demolished state after the structure had been made safe. The Mappin Art Gallery reopened in 1965. From 1965 to 2003 it hosted significant art exhibitions, such as the British Art Show, and celebrated its centenary in 1987. The two buildings closed in March 2003 for complete renovation. The £17.3 million re-development was partly funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund,

Sheffield City Council Sheffield City Council is the city council for the metropolitan borough of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It consists of 84 councillors, elected to represent 28 wards, each with three councillors. It is currently under No Overall Con ...

and Objective 1 for South Yorkshire. The building reopened in October 2006 as Weston Park Museum. This removed the separate identity of the Mappin Art Gallery. The museum closed again in summer 2016 for a refurbishment and to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the renovation. The museum's archaeology exhibits include a replica of the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

rock art from Gardom's Edge and many items collected by

Thomas Bateman Thomas Bateman (8 November 1821 (baptised) – 28 August 1861) was an English antiquary and barrow-digger. Biography Thomas Bateman was born in Rowsley, Derbyshire, England, the son of the amateur archaeologist William Bateman. After the death ...

, notably the

Benty Grange helmet The Benty Grange helmet is an Anglo-Saxon boar-crested helmet from the 7th century AD. It was excavated by Thomas Bateman in 1848 from a tumulus at the Benty Grange farm in Monyash in western Derbyshire. The grave had probably been looted ...

which closely matches the descriptions of warriors' helmets in

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ang, Bēowulf ) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The ...

. There are seven galleries: the Harold Cantor Gallery; Sheffield Life and Times; History Lab; Arctic World; What On Earth!; Treasures; and Picturing Sheffield. The Harold Cantor Gallery houses temporary exhibitions, which include major touring exhibitions from national partners such as the V&A and

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It documen ...

. The museum is home to one of the longest serving weather stations in the country, providing data on Sheffield's weather since 1882. Weston Park museum receives around 250,000 visitors a year and was nominated for the prestigious Gulbenkian Prize in 2007. In 2008 the museum won '' The Guardian's'' Family Friendly Museums award..

References

*'In Perpetuity and Without Charge' : Mappin Art Gallery 1887–1987,

Michael Tooby Mike Tooby (born 20 December 1956) is an independent curator and researcher based in Cardiff, Wales. His interests lie in integrating the practices often separated in curating in the arts and heritage settings: research, display, promotion, part ...

: Sheffield City Council Arts Department, 1987

External links

* * {{authority control Cultural infrastructure completed in 1868 Museums established in 2006 Grade II* listed buildings in Sheffield Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust Museums in Sheffield Art museums and galleries in Sheffield Archaeological museums in England Natural history museums in England Local museums in South Yorkshire 2006 establishments in England