Wakefield Museum

Wakefield Museum Discover the extraordinary and learn all about Wakefield, its history and its people! http://wakefieldmuseumsandlibraries.blogspot.com/

Bring friends and family to Wakefield Museum and discover the extraordinary, the oldest, the first, and the one and only!

Last chance! Cynthia Kenny: a city framed closes this Saturday 20 June. 🖼️🎨Join us to celebrate the life and work of loc...
15/06/2026

Last chance! Cynthia Kenny: a city framed closes this Saturday 20 June. 🖼️🎨

Join us to celebrate the life and work of local artist Cynthia Kenny (1929-2021). Explore our changing city through her eyes.

Her works include rural landscapes, city skylines and studies of backyards and buildings. The evocative images cover iconic views and well-known landmarks.

Our feature exhibitions are always free entry.

Don't just take it from us - here's what our visitors have to say:
"Wow, it was like being in the room with Cynthia. It was lovely seeing her paintings again."
"inspiring art exhibition"
"Good to see local art"
"the Cynthia Kenny exhibition is wonderful"
"We loved Cynthia's exhibition and drew our own Wakefield sketches"
"it's lovely to see a glimpse of old Wakefield architecture"

15/06/2026

Don't be a late bird - it's your last chance to catch this worm! 🪱

This giant Worms costume has kindly been lent to us by Team17. But, they need him back to spruce him up ahead of Gamescom in Germany!

You've got until 7pm Monday 22 June to see him, before he worms away.

The display is part of our celebration of 30 years of Worms, Wakefield's most explosive international export!

The worm is on display with the tools of his trade, including a Banana Bomb, Holy Hand Gr***de of Antioch, and of course, a Concrete Donkey.

You can also play Worms in the museum on our mini console!

Wakefield Council Experience Wakefield

In honour of the Taskmaster finale tonight, we've dug out these wonderful wax seals.We're hoping for bonus points, as th...
11/06/2026

In honour of the Taskmaster finale tonight, we've dug out these wonderful wax seals.

We're hoping for bonus points, as they're some of the first objects that were added to our collection...

The seals were part of William Fennell's personal collections. Fennell was a wealthy local wine merchant. He was a keen collector of lots of different objects, from fossils to Egyptian pottery.
After he died, his family donated his collections to the brand-new Wakefield Museum in 1923. They formed some of the first objects in our collections.
Fennell was the father of Louisa Fennell, an accomplished artist from Wakefield.

"They think it's all over... it is now!"We're manifesting World Cup success like 60 years ago with our new atrium case ⚽...
11/06/2026

"They think it's all over... it is now!"

We're manifesting World Cup success like 60 years ago with our new atrium case ⚽️🏆

Did you know that the ball Geoff Hurst scored his competition-winning hattrick with was made in Horbury?

The football was a Slazenger Challenge 4-star. 100 years of refined craftsmanship went into the balls. In 1866 16-year-old William Sykes was tasked with making two footballs. Sykes later founded his own leather working and sports manufacturing company.

Football manufacturing in Horbury continued after Sykes merged with Slazenger in 1942. It peaked with the 1966 World Cup.

See stunning examples of our sporting heritage for yourself - now on display at Wakefield One!

Wakefield Council Experience Wakefield Wakefield Libraries Wakefield Wellbeing

08/06/2026

"Wow, it was like being in the room with Cynthia. It was lovely seeing her paintings again."

It's your last chance to see Cynthia Kenny: a city framed at Wakefield Museum. 🖼️🎨

This fantastic exhibition is free entry. Open until Saturday 20 June.

Don't just take it from us - here's what our visitors have to say:
"inspiring art exhibition"
"Good to see local art"
"the Cynthia Kenny exhibition is wonderful"
"We loved Cynthia's exhibition and drew our own Wakefield sketches"
"it's lovely to see a glimpse of old Wakefield architecture"

This week is We have a fantastic team of volunteers who work across our Wakefield Museums and Castles sites; here at Wa...
05/06/2026

This week is

We have a fantastic team of volunteers who work across our Wakefield Museums and Castles sites; here at Wakefield Museum and close-by at our Stores facility in Ossett (and even remotely!) you might find our volunteers:

- Supporting our popular Home Education workshops
- Auditing objects on display
- Cleaning objects with our handy Museum-vac
- Sewing Tyvek covers to help protect our objects
- Updating our Accession Register with newly acquired objects
- Transcribing our oral history recordings

Let's all say a big thank you to our volunteers - without them, things just wouldn't be the same. We appreciate everything that they do to help us care for our visitors, sites and collections 💙

Life in plastic, it's fantastic..?In our most recent sessions, our group have been focusing on a contribution to the u...
04/06/2026

Life in plastic, it's fantastic..?

In our most recent sessions, our group have been focusing on a contribution to the upcoming Plastic Fantastic? exhibition at Wakefield Museum. We've been working alongside the Curator and the Exhibitions Officer.

We gave feedback on the exhibition plans and designs. We also discussed what contribution we could make to the exhibition.

We wanted to make something to address the problem of single use plastic and plastic waste. We pledged to use our creativity to give plastic a second life.

Look out for our creations when the exhibition opens in July!

Photos by Nick Singleton

04/06/2026

"They think it's all over... it is now!"

We're manifesting World Cup success like 60 years ago with our new atrium case ⚽️🏆

Did you know that the ball Geoff Hurst scored his competition-winning hattrick with was made in Horbury?

The football was a Slazenger Challenge 4-star. 100 years of refined craftsmanship went into the balls. In 1866 16-year-old William Sykes was tasked with making two footballs. Sykes later founded his own leather working and sports manufacturing company.

Football manufacturing in Horbury continued after Sykes merged with Slazenger in 1942. It peaked with the 1966 World Cup.

See stunning examples of our sporting heritage for yourself - now on display at Wakefield One!
Wakefield Council Experience Wakefield Wakefield Libraries

26/05/2026

Yes, that really is a giant worm hanging around by the museum! 🪱

Pop in and pop up with us today!Join us from 10am to create Hidden nature worlds from paper! 🦊- Get crafty making your o...
26/05/2026

Pop in and pop up with us today!

Join us from 10am to create Hidden nature worlds from paper! 🦊

- Get crafty making your own paper pop-up nature reserve
- Make animals and plants to live in your nature reserve
- Use different pop-up techniques to bring your creation to life

Whilst you're here, discover the story of Waterton's Wall, the first nature reserve in the world!

🕙 10am to 3pm; free and drop-in

Address

Burton Street
Wakefield
WF12DD

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 7pm
Thursday 9am - 7pm
Friday 9am - 5pm
Saturday 9am - 4pm

Telephone

01924 302104

Website

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