Knaresborough Museum to open doors for first time in June

Knaresborough Town Museum will open its doors for the first time this summer to give visitors a sneak peek at the museum.

Knaresborough Museum Association will hold a community history festival on June 2-4 as part of the town’s the Queen’s platinum jubilee celebrations.

The museum, based at the former Castle Girls’ School near Knaresborough Castle, has been in the works since late 2020 but with the building lease set to be signed on April 1, the group can begin to plan events.

Some of the museum’s volunteers. Left to right: Sam Roberts, Clare Joia, Kathy Allday and Suzanne Coulson

The museum won’t be fully ready for the festival but it will have had a fresh lick of paint and will host stalls from numerous local groups, including the Royal British Legion Knaresborough branch and the Knaresborough Historical Society.

There will also be activities for children, including a mock-Victorian classroom for craft activity. The group hopes to have people teach heritage crafts, such as cotton spinning.

The museum itself is set to officially open in February 2023. A planning application has been submitted to Harrogate Borough Council but chair of the association, Kathy Allday, said due to a delay in contractors works won’t be able to start until autumn.

She said:

“It’s a shame we’ve had to push back the opening date but after the festival we can hit the ground running and get works underway.

“We’ll be unveiling artefacts at the festival and a 3D model of how the museum will look. We will also be trialling our history trail which walks around the town, the hopes is we can do these regularly once the museum is open.”

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The museum is being funded by public donations and grants, it will include eight exhibition zones covering periods of history from the Jurassic age to the World Wars.

The association is currently looking for business sponsors to come on board to support the museum as it opens, to get in touch click here.