News & Events

Tavistock Museum has received a locality grant from Devon County Council which will be put towards the cost of new kitchen facilities for use by the museum volunteers.

Last Thursday (31st October) Cllr Debo Sellis presented a cheque for £3000 to museum trustee Linda Elliott. She said ‘I am very happy to support Tavistock Museum. I believe this is an excellent use of the County Councillor’s locality budget as the museum is of interest to our community and our visitors, and a real asset to our World Heritage Site. Well done and a big thank you to the wonderful team of volunteers.’

A large banner previously displayed in the United Reform Church at Tavistock has found a new home at Tavistock Museum. The cloth banner shows a painting of the imposing Congregational Church, a gothic structure with a tall spire, built in 1873 which once was a feature of Duke Street.

Of all the exhibits in Tavistock Museum the one which attracts the most interest is the School Punishment Book from Stowford Church of England School, a small village school, near Lifton. The book was completed for the period February 1935 until November 1946 and records the names and misdeeds of 105 pupils between the ages of 6 and 14. As so many visitors have asked for a copy of the book the museum decided to publish it and now has copies available for sale from the museum shop and on the Devon Museums website.

The town museum will re-open on Saturday 26th March 2016 with two new exhibitions. There will also be a display of military vehicles outside the museum on the opening day. This year’s new exhibitions are:

‘Commemorating 75 Years Since the Opening of Harrowbeer RAF Station, Yelverton’
and

‘Weddings in the Past’

In 2013 the museum extended into the adjoining cottage and acquired a ground level access leading from the Guildhall Square. Since that time the museum has received 7,000 plus visitors annually.

Our visitor surveys confirm that the majority of visitors come into the museum as the result of seeing our signs when passing; therefore improving our external signage became a priority in our business plan.

2015 sees two brand new exhibitions opening at Tavistock Museum. They are: “The Challenging Roads To Peace Since World War 1” and “The Traders of Tavistock”.