The Yorkshire Museum of Farming is located in Murton Park near

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

in England. It is housed on a grass field site of approximately , and is the only museum in the district specifically dedicated to the subject of farming. In the autumn of 2010, the museum was awarded full accreditation status by the

Museums, Libraries and Archives Council The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) was until May 2012 a non-departmental public body and registered charity in England with a remit to promote improvement and innovation in the area of museums, libraries and archives. Its function ...

. The museum has built up a large collection of artefacts that illustrate the history of farm mechanisation. The collection also contains domestic items and other documentary material relating to the social structure of rural life in the area. Events are held throughout the year relating to rural and farming themes. There is also a children's play area and a cafe. The site is also home to the last surviving stretch of the

Derwent Valley Light Railway The Derwent Valley Light Railway (DVLR) (also known as The Blackberry Line) was a privately owned standard-gauge railway in North Yorkshire, England, and was unusual in that it was never nationalised, remaining as a private operation all its ...

, part of whose archive is also in the museum's collection. The museum shares the site with the

Danelaw The Danelaw (, also known as the Danelagh; ang, Dena lagu; da, Danelagen) was the part of England in which the laws of the Danes held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. The Danelaw contrasts with the West Saxon law and the Mercian ...

Centre for Living History. Living history facilities include a mock

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

fort A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

called Brigantium, which is a disguised outdoor classroom designed to cater for up to 65 children at a time. There are also buildings dedicated to the Tudor and

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

ages, including a

Dark Age The ''Dark Ages'' is a term for the Early Middle Ages, or occasionally the entire Middle Ages, in Western Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire that characterises it as marked by economic, intellectual and cultural decline. The conce ...

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

and how they farmed the land centuries ago.

History and collection

The museum opened in 1982. It was originally designed to house a growing collection of farm machinery that had been donated by various farms from

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north ...

and

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

to the East Yorkshire Farm Machinery Preservation Society and stored at Burton Constable. The core of the collection focuses on the development of the mechanisation of farming during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A wide variety of items are on display, divided between two main exhibition galleries, the Four Seasons Gallery and the

Livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animal ...

Gallery. A number of rare breeds of livestock are kept on site, including a Toggenburg goat, 'Jeffrey', who has been made an honorary member and mascot for the RAF 609 (West Riding) squadron since March 2010. The Four Seasons Gallery looks at the farming year, and the different practices and tools which are used across the four seasons. In 2013 a new exhibition opened; ''Feeding the Nation: A Celebration of the Women's Land Army'' is located on the upper floor of the Four Seasons Building. Funded by the Heritage Lottery fund, the exhibition showcases some of the museum's rich Land Army collection and includes audio points featuring interviews with ex-members and film footage. The Livestock building considers the rearing and farming of a variety of types of livestock. This also includes a display of the contents of the

James Herriot James Alfred Wight (3 October 1916 – 23 February 1995), better known by his pen name James Herriot, was a British veterinary surgeon and author. Born in Sunderland, Wight graduated from Glasgow Veterinary College in 1939, returning to Eng ...

's (Alf Wight) veterinary surgery. The museum is also home to a large manuscript archive which can be viewed on appointment. Subjects covered in the archive include:

manorial Manorialism, also known as the manor system or manorial system, was the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of Europe, notably France and later England, during the Middle Ages. Its defining features included a large, sometimes forti ...

documents, agricultural machinery manufacturers' accounts, the

Women's Land Army The Women's Land Army (WLA) was a British civilian organisation created in 1917 by the Board of Agriculture during the First World War to bring women into work in agriculture, replacing men called up to the military. Women who worked for the W ...

, the Derwent Valley Light Railway, the Cleveland Bay Horse Society, and a huge array of miscellaneous accounts, correspondence, certificates, photographs, maps and prints. There is also a sizeable library on-site which contains numerous historic journals, manuals, text books, and magazines. This can be accessed by appointment.

Farming families

During 2007-2008, a project which involved interviewing a number of different farming families was completed. This provides an audiovisual display of different types of farms from around Yorkshire, including dairy, sheep, pigs and arable crops, both organic and those using

agrochemicals An agrochemical or agrichemical, a contraction of ''agricultural chemical'', is a chemical product used in industrial agriculture. Agrichemical refers to biocides (pesticides including insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and nematicides) and sy ...

, an artificial inseminater and some

subsistence A subsistence economy is an economy directed to basic subsistence (the provision of food, clothing, shelter) rather than to the market. Henceforth, "subsistence" is understood as supporting oneself at a minimum level. Often, the subsistence econo ...

farms. A new audiovisual room was built as part of the project.

Derwent Valley Light Railway

The museum lies on the trackbed of the

- a privately owned standard-gauge railway which ran from

Layerthorpe Layerthorpe is a village in the unitary authority area of the City of York, North Yorkshire, England. It is outside the city walls of York. The road through Layerthorpe from the bridge over the River Foss to Heworth is also shares the same na ...

, on the outskirts of

, to Cliffe Common near

Selby Selby is a market town and civil parish in the Selby District of North Yorkshire, England, south of York on the River Ouse, with a population at the 2011 census of 14,731. The town was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire until ...

. This closed in 1981, but a small section has been restored as part of the museum. It opened in 1993, and incorporates a station building formerly located at

Wheldrake Wheldrake is a village and civil parish located south-east of York. Administratively it is in the unitary authority of the City of York in North Yorkshire, England. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 1,909, increasing t ...

. There is approximately of track running along the original trackbed towards York.

Gallery

File:Yorkshire Museum of Farming, Murton Park York, England - Barn Display front area (RLH).JPG, Front display area in main barn File:Yorkshire Museum of Farming, Murton Park York, England - Barn Display rear area (RLH).JPG, Rear display area in main barn File:Yorkshire Museum of Farming, Murton Park York, England - Barn Display middle area (RLH).JPG, Middle display area in main barn

References

External links

Yorkshire Museum of Farming Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yorkshire Museum Of Farming Museums in York Farm museums in England Railway museums in England Murton, North Yorkshire