In brief Collections Highlights Access Contact
In brief
Hereford Museum and Art Gallery, housed in a spectacular Victorian Gothic building, has been exhibiting specimens, artefacts and works of fine and decorative art connected with the local area since 1874. Although the exterior of the building has changed very little, the museum and gallery have kept up with the times. The museum started life as the collections and library of the Woolhope Club, a nineteenth century naturalist’s society still active today, that includes many distinguished natural historians and antiquarians. Hereford Museum still occupies the original building.
The Museum Resource & Learning Centre (MR&LC), Friars Street, Hereford, is the central storage facility for the county’s museum collections, with a difference. In addition to climate-controlled stores which keep Herefordshire’s heritage preserved for all to enjoy, this centre is also open to the public for curatorial advice and identifications as well as drop in visits.
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Alpine Lady’s Mantle (Alchemilla alpina).
Collections
Geology
- Palaeontology material including type and figured material. Stratigraphic collection of Herefordshire linked to unpublished manuscript by Clarke, small mineral collection.
Trilobite (Calymene blumenbachi).
Biology
- Very good entomological collections especially rich in Coleoptera. Bird and mammal mounts and study skins of most British species, some rarities. Mollusca collection. Extensive herbarium.
- Double headed Hereford calf and a Sturgeon caught in the River Wye in the nineteenth century are two of much loved older specimens.
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One of Herefordshire’s Tawny Owls.
Highlights
- Chapman’s Coleoptera & Lepidoptera
- Sturgeon (Take One…)
- Bull herbarium
- Two-headed calf
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Beetles donated to the museum at the end of the 19th Century by Dr. Thomas Algernon Chapman.
Access
Small displays at Broad Street on geology and natural history of Herefordshire.
The MR&LC is open to the public for curatorial advice, identifications and drop in visits on the second Thursday and third Tuesday of each month (from 10a.m. to 1p.m.). Natural history and geology curators are available on the Thursday. Appointments to visit the collections for longer periods of research or for group visits to see behind the scenes can be made by appointment. We are normally available on Monday to Friday between 10a.m. and 4p.m., excluding bank holidays.
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Herefordshire’s sturgeon, caught on the river Wye.
Contact
Sarah Skelton, Senior Collections Officer (including Natural History)
t: 01432 260 231 e: sskelton@herefordshire.gov.uk
website
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Hereford Museum Resource & Learning Centre.
