Marton Museum of Country Bygones

About the museum

The museum was started by George Tims, a lifelong collector who settled in Marton with his wife in 1952. His collection first grew in garden sheds and was later stored in rooms above the vicarage stables. In 1964 brick outbuildings at Hall Farm allowed him to open a proper museum on Easter Monday and to take in larger items such as ploughs, harrows and carts. He collected mainly from within about ten miles of the village, especially the tools of local craftsmen and examples of their work.

When the Hall Farm site was sold to developers in 1980, the planning conditions required a new museum building, which is owned by the parish council. It opened officially in June 1982, and a charitable trust was set up in 1983 to run it. Opening became less regular in the late 1990s and the museum closed around 2002 because of illness; its founder died in 2005.

New village trustees were appointed in 2009 and volunteers began to reopen the museum, first for Heritage Open Days in 2011 and later on summer Sunday afternoons. Volunteers have catalogued more than 3,000 items, from carts and a threshing machine to small decorative objects, most of them showing working life in the village a century or more ago.

Highlights

• More than 3,000 objects from village life
• Carts, a threshing machine and other farm equipment
• Tools and products of village craftsmen such as blacksmiths and wheelwrights
• Displays on domestic life in rural Marton
• Seventeenth-century clock mechanism from a local church tower

Permanent exhibition

• Village life collection – More than 3,000 objects showing working and domestic life in Marton, including farming equipment, craftsmen's tools and household items.

Founded

1964

Operated by

Charitable trust run by village trustees and volunteers

Admission & discounts

Admission is free.

Entry is free.

Accessibility

• Wheelchair accessible: no information
• Elevator: no information
• Accessible restroom
• Accessible parking: no information
• Service dogs welcome: no information
• Tactile models & exhibits: no information
• Sign language tours: no information
• Easy-to-read materials: no information
• Audio description: no information

The museum has an accessible toilet. No further access information is published.

Kids & families

The Heritage Open Days weekend includes country skills demonstrations and family activities. A playground is at the entrance to the village playing fields next to the museum.

Getting there & parking

The museum is at the entrance to the village playing fields in Marton and is signposted from the main road.

Amenities & dining

Teas and cakes are served in the village pavilion during the Heritage Open Days weekend.

Events & venue rental

The museum hasn’t published any information on this.

Plan your visit