The Wells and Mendip Museum is a museum in the city of Wells. It is a registered charity and an accredited member of 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 functio ...

. The exhibits include items of local history and archaeological finds.

Building

The museum is next to Wells Cathedral, and housed in the former Chancellors' House, with 15th-century origins, however most of the current fabric of the building is from the 17th and 18th centuries. The stone building has gabled roofs of

Welsh slate The existence of a slate industry in Wales is attested since the Roman period, when slate was used to roof the fort at Segontium, now Caernarfon. The slate industry grew slowly until the early 18th century, then expanded rapidly until the la ...

. A small entrance hall provides access to a staircase hall leading to a salon in

gothic revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style with a marble fireplace. The front of the building was remodelled around 1828 and the rear includes a 20th-century extension. It has been designated as a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

Museum history

It was founded by

Herbert E. Balch Herbert Ernest Balch (4 November 1869 – 27 May 1958) MA FSA was an English archaeologist, naturalist, caver and geologist who explored the caves of the Mendip Hills and pioneered many of the techniques used by modern cavers. Born in Wells, h ...

in 1893, to display his collection of local artefacts and memorabilia, and further exhibits have been added since. It is run by the Wells Natural History and Archaeological Society and moved from its original site in the Cathedral cloister to its present home in 1932.

Collections

The Balch Room houses exhibits of geology and fossils collected from the Mendip Hills, many of which date from the

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with ...

and

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...

s. Other exhibits include lead ingots from

Roman Britain Roman Britain was the period in classical antiquity when large parts of the island of Great Britain were under occupation by the Roman Empire. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. During that time, the territory conquered wa ...

, statuary from Wells Cathedral, and a collection of 18th century samplers. Speleological exhibits include a skeleton found by Balch in Wookey Hole Caves and thought to be that of the Witch of Wookey Hole; and a collection of animal bones found in 2004, when a cave was discovered in the car park of the Hunters Lodge Inn in

Priddy Priddy is a village in Somerset, England in the Mendip Hills, close to East Harptree and north-west of Wells. It is in the local government district of Mendip. The village lies in a small hollow near the summit of the Mendip range of hills, a ...

References

External links

Official website
* {{authority control Museums in Somerset Museums established in 1893 Buildings and structures in Wells, Somerset Mendip Hills Grade II listed buildings in Mendip District Local museums in Somerset Natural history museums in England Archaeological museums in England 1893 establishments in England Grade II listed museum buildings