
Market Hall Museum, Warwick

Market Hall Museum is an historic museum located in Warwick, in Warwickshire, England. The Market Hall forms part of The Warwickshire Museum, alongside St John's House. The Warwickshire Museum is operated by Heritage and Culture Warwickshire. The collections on display at Market Hall are primarily focused on objects in the fields of archaeology, geology and natural history, and particularly those local to Warwickshire.
History.
Construction.
The Market Hall was constructed in the latter part of the 17th century, as a way to provide shelter and protection from the weather for salesmen and stallholders in the town's regular market – the precursor, Booth Hall, being declared insufficient. The building was constructed with a large, open-plan ground floor with wide open arches, to allow easy access to the stalls. The first floor also housed a number of rooms, which after 1694 served as meeting rooms for any organisations which wished to rent them.
From the early 18th century to 1848, one small room in the Hall served as a "lock-up" – a small room which was used to hold prisoners before magistrate trials. From 1833 until its closure in 1848 the room was declared a "disgrace" – in 1842, it was reported that the room was "8ft 8ins by 3ft 8ins" and at one point housed thirteen people at once.
Warwickshire Natural History and Archaeological Society.
At the beginning of the 19th century, there was a surge in interest in popular education – particularly in the realms of natural sciences, natural history, and archaeology. In 1836, the Warwickshire Natural History and Archaeological Society was formed as a group of like-minded local men. Advertisements were placed in the local newspaper, and rooms were hired in the Market Hall for their meetings. At the first meeting it was declared that one of the main aims should be to amass a collection of zoological, botanical and mineral objects. These objects were placed on display in the Market Hall for public viewing, on payment of one shilling (an amount which excluded many of the poor of Warwickshire), or an annual one guinea subscription, which also constituted membership of the society. Members additionally had the benefit of being invited to free lectures on natural history or historical topics, and partaking in lunches at the Woolpack Inn across the road.
The Society held a free event in 1847 (and repeated in subsequent years), when members of the public were allowed to view the collections without charge. The "Warwick Advertiser" noted afterwards that "Hundreds of visitors to the museum conducted themselves with the utmost decorum." In 1879, the ground-floor arches were filled with windows and doors within iron frames. Nevertheless, the ground floor was still used for market activities until around 1900, by which time the Museum's collection had grown to such an extent that it required the entire building. In 1905, renovations were undertaken to make the building more suited for use as a museum – these included a new front door with the word MUSEUM on the stonework above it (). However, membership of the Society began to decline in the latter part of the 19th century.
Public Service.
As membership dwindled, funding became more difficult. As a result, in March 1932 the Society offered the museum collection to Warwickshire County Council, which was accepted. This made Warwickshire the first county council in the UK to be directly responsible for a museum service. In 1936 the building was scheduled as an Ancient Monument to prevent its demolition; and in 1938 work began to repair and restore it. In the same year, admission to the museum was made free to the general public.
After a period as a Civil Defence store during the Second World War, the building Museum was listed Grade II* in 1953. Further work soon afterwards included the installation of a replica of the original cupola, and new windows to light the attic floor (currently used as offices). Since this time the Museum has been run by the Warwickshire Museum Service, now part of Heritage and Culture Warwickshire.
Museum.
As at its inception, the Museum still holds items of significant archaeological, geological or natural interest. However whilst the Museum originally collected objects from around the country (with a bias toward local findings), the Museum now displays almost exclusively objects local to Warwickshire.
Examples include:
The museum is free and open to the public. The museum is located half a mile from Warwick Railway Station, and a very brief walk from Warwick Central Bus station.