Newton Abbot Museum

14/10/2026

🏗️ Heritage Store Update: Progress on Site!

We’re pleased to share that the foundations and substructure of the extension are now complete, and drainage works beneath the building have been installed and approved. The blockwork walls are also progressing, with scaffolding now in place to help the next phase of construction get underway.

The ramp substructure is well underway, and the site’s permanent welfare facilities are now installed and operational.

🔨 What’s next? Over the coming weeks, work will focus on completing the blockwork, installing the roof, progressing the stonework and external drainage, and beginning internal fit-out works. Preparations will also be made for the installation of roller racking to help store and organise our collections.

The good news is that the project remains on programme overall! We’re currently awaiting confirmation from South West Water regarding the final drainage connection, which will help finalise the construction schedule.

Our £1.2 million Heritage Store project will provide a climate-controlled home for our collections, helping us care for Newton Abbot’s heritage for generations to come, while creating more opportunities for the community to discover what happens behind the scenes at the museum.

It’s exciting to see the building taking shape! We’ll keep you updated as work continues. 🏛️

13/10/2026

👗 FREE Talk: A Deep Dive Beneath the Skirts of a Wealthy Tudor Lady and Her Servant by Rosemary Griggs

On Wednesday 28 October, join local author, speaker and seamstress Rosemary Griggs for a fascinating journey into the intricacies of Tudor dress and discover what Tudor fashions can tell us about how people lived 500 years ago. What a woman wore was not only a personal choice but also a public declaration of her place in the world.

This talk includes a full costume demonstration and discussion of fabrics, embroidery, who made the clothes, how they kept them clean, and how knitting became an important cottage industry.

Prepare to be surprised by the diverse pathways fashion can lead you down!

📅 Wednesday 28 October
⏰ 11am–1pm
🎟️ Free talk but booking is essential: tinyurl.com/TudorDressTalk

Join author, speaker and seamstress Rosemary Griggs to explore the intricacies of Tudor dress.

12/10/2026

You don’t need to go all the way to London to see a part of the Bayeux tapestry!

This Wednesday will mark 960 years since the Battle of Hastings.

This glass lantern slide depicts the death of Harold Godwinson from the Bayeux Tapestry, reimagined by local cartoonist Charles Vicary.

On Harold’s left side, a Wyvern standard can be seen- the wyvern is a two legged dragon that was the emblem of the kingdom of Wessex, which consisted of most of modern day southern England at its peak. When Devon became part of its territory, Britons of the Dumnonii tribe and Saxons allegedly inhabited Exeter as ‘equals’ until 927, according to William of Malmesbury.

Charles Lane Vicary, of the Vicary family, was a prolific cartoonist in Newton Abbot, often illustrating local advertisements and local figures. A recent donation of a collection of his lantern slides offer a fascinating insight into his life.

09/10/2026

📸 Our Photographic Archive is going online! 🎉

We’re excited to announce that 80 photographs from our collection are now available to browse online through South West Collections Explorer! Browse here: tinyurl.com/SWCollectionsExplorer

This is the first step in our project to make more of our photographic archive accessible to everyone and this is just the beginning. Our next batch of photographs is planned for December, when we’ll be adding even more images from the Museum’s collection.

📸 Bank Street in the 1950s from the Francis Frith Collection.

Why not have a browse and see what you can discover! tinyurl.com/SWCollectionsExplorer

Yellow Umbrella Gifts.

08/10/2026

📢 Upcoming Talk: Constantine – Made in Britain and Creator of the Modern World

Join us for the next Friends of Newton Abbot Museum talk with Desmond New, exploring the life and legacy of Constantine and his fascinating connections to Britain.

📅 Thursday 29 October 2026
🕖 7pm–8.30pm (doors open at 6.30pm)

🎟️ FREE for Friends of Newton Abbot Museum | £5 for non-members
Booking is essential: www.eventbrite.com/e/1999285998240?aff=oddtdtcreator

🤔 Interested in becoming a Friend of Newton Abbot Museum? Membership runs from September to September and costs £20 per person. We also offer joint membership with Teignbridge Archaeological Society for £30.

07/10/2026

🎶 Black History Month: Honouring Our Communities

This October, we’re celebrating the stories of people whose lives and achievements are part of our local history.

One of those stories belongs to Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875–1912), the acclaimed British Black mixed-race composer whose music brought him international fame.

Did you know that Samuel Coleridge-Taylor visited Newton Abbot?

In 1902, he travelled to the town to conduct the Newton Abbot Choral Society’s silver jubilee performance of his hugely popular work, Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast. The concert took place at the Alexandra Theatre.

His appearance was a major coup for the Society. By this time, Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast had become a national sensation, and Coleridge-Taylor’s performance was a triumph, receiving “loud applause.”

Thanks to an excellent project by The Mixed Museum, you can follow in Coleridge-Taylor’s footsteps and discover more about his journey to Newton Abbot.

🚂 Tracks of a Trailblazer, funded by GWR, includes an interactive map where you can explore the places he visited, listen to the accompanying audio series and discover more about the communities and stories connected to his travels: trailblazer.mixedmuseum.org.uk/

For more information about his life visit: blackhistorymonth.org.uk/article/section/arts-culture/samuel-coleridge-taylor-the-forgotten-composer-who-bridged-cultures-and-challenged-racial-barriers/

06/10/2026

🧒 NEW FOR HOME EDUCATORS: HERITAGE CREATIVES! (A new hands-on art workshop series for home-educated children of all ages)

🤳 26 October - Heritage Creatives: Stop Motion in the Museum

What happens when your toys come to life and start exploring the museum? Join us for our first workshop and bring your imagination to life through stop-motion animation!

This is a parent-led session where you can practise your stop-motion skills together while we're closed to the public.

📅 Monday 26 October
🕐 1–3pm
👧 All Ages
🎟️ FREE but booking is required as spaces are limited: tinyurl.com/HeritageCreatives

📱 Please bring a posable figure or toy and a device that can run the free Stop Motion Studio app.

Heritage Creatives - a new hands-on art workshop series for home-educated children of all ages. From clay to collage, photography to fabric, each session will explore a different creative technique and uncover inspiration in the museum's collections.

05/10/2026

🔥 Today’s is a round-based paraffin lamp with a reflector behind the wick holder

Also called the Kerosene Lamp, the Paraffin Lamp is a light source that traditionally uses a wick and/or mantle with a kerosene fuelled flame. Paraffin as a fuel source for lighting came about as a replacement for traditional animal and plant oils which produced too small a light source and gas lighting which required large open spaces to function. Widespread use of the lamp mainly came about when James Young in 1850 patented a low temperature distillation process for petroleum in Derbyshire. It paired with a deign of lamp that involves allowing a controlled stream of air to pass from the bottom to the top sustaining the flame.

The paraffin lamp still sees some use today notably in areas without rural electrification or as an alternative during power cuts. Similarly in campsites and boats they are also useful due to the lack of available electricity. In World War II, Tilley Lamps were used by sailors, soldiers and airmen due to portability and relative ease of use for their cost, and the British Rail also frequently used paraffin lamps as signal lights before they were replaced by battery powered Bardic Lamps in 1965. However, paraffin is notably quite risky in use, due to both the threat of spilling highly flammable fuel and the air stream usage means sudden updrafts can lead to explosions able to kill as demonstrated by the death of the unlucky woman Elizabeth Gosling living in Denaby Main in 1892.

(Information from Wikipedia, “The Origin and Development of the Incandescent Paraffin Lamp” by A.R.J. Ramsey, C.P A., and Conisbrough & Denaby Main Local History.)

04/10/2026

👶 TODDLER TUESDAYS at Newton Abbot Museum

Bring your little ones for a relaxed morning of exploring, playing, singing, drawing and discovering!

Sessions for children aged 0-4 during term time.
📆 Upcoming sessions:
6, 13, 20 October
3, 10, 17 & 24 November
1, 8 December

⏰ 9:30-10:30am

🖼 Explore the museum
📚Story-time
✏ Drawing
🐻 Play
🎤 Singing with actions
🖌 Occasional crafting activity

Booking recommended as spaces are limited: shorturl.at/g52k1

02/10/2026

👻 Can you solve the mystery this October Half Term?

Something strange is happening… objects have been disappearing and moving to the strangest places all on their own! 😱

The curator needs your help. You’ve been called in as paranormal detectives to explore the museum, follow the clues and discover which object is causing all the mischief.

Join us for a spooky puzzle adventure perfect for families, puzzle-lovers and ghost-hunters aged 8+!

🎃 Costumes are not required, but highly encouraged!
🍬 Spooky snacks will be provided!

📅 Friday 30 & Saturday 31 October @ 5pm - 6.30pm & 7pm - 8.30pm
🎟️ £5pp | Booking required: tinyurl.com/HauntedObjectsNAM

🕵️ Working in collaboration with Escape - Newton Abbot Escape Rooms