The museum building is our largest object being made up of two former Market Houses and Drill Hall. The first building the museum occupied in 1949 was originally designed as the town’s Market House in 1837 for butter and eggs. The Museum expanded into the meat market in 1983, then into the adjoining Drill Hall in 1999.
The building is in need of some care and thanks to the Museum Estate and Development Fund (MEND), with criteria set by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Arts Council England, Historic England (HE) and The National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF), we have been awarded a grant by Arts Council England with funding provided by DCMS to carry out this needed work.
In September 2025 scaffolding went up to allow us to complete the first part of the project to improve the exterior of the museum. We are painting the outside of the museum, replacing the guttering and the wooden beam that supports the bell in the Meat Market bell tower.
The museum has 36 windows that all needed attention and only 3 needed repairing. The broken pains were replaced and a long terms project started by the volunteer team to put UV blocking film on each pain. The 3 large windows that look down to the Meat Market are made up of 58 individual pains.
In repainting the building and facia boards we have also made sure the water flows round the channels at ground level rather than into the granite.
In December work will begin on the second part of the project as we try and make the museum more sustainable and a nicer place to visit with the installation of insulation to the upper floors in the Drill Hall. We will begin with relocating all the items in our object store to the temporary exhibition gallery. When we re-open in January 2026 after our Christmas closure the Drill Hall will be closed for three months. Visitors will still be able to access the Butter Market and Meat Market buildings. While we are closed we will be moving all the objects from the upper display area in the Loft, putting in insulation and then returning all the objects.
Top photograph Philip Sayer Museums Journal, drawing architect Claire Newman, bottom photograph Tom Young
