Museum of East Dorset

About the museum

The Museum of East Dorset opened on 31 July 1962 in the building known as the Priest's House on Wimborne's High Street. Hilda Coles, who inherited her father's ironmonger's business in 1953, closed the shop in 1960 and turned the house into a museum with the Wimborne Historical Society, hoping it would be a lively centre of education and culture for adults and children. The shop, T. G. Coles and Son, had traded on the site from 1872 to 1960. When she died in 1987, she left the house and garden to the Governors of Wimborne Minster, a local charitable trust, with an endowment.

In the 1990s the trust restored the building and created permanent displays, giving ten exhibition rooms. Between 2012 and 2014 a Garden Room, a meeting room, collections storage and the Tea Room were added, and in 2014 the trust took over the town's Information Centre. A National Lottery Heritage Fund grant paid for a restoration of the Grade II* listed building from 2020, and the museum now has eleven galleries.

The collection holds about 35,000 objects, mostly about local domestic life, childhood, trades and farming. Highlights include finds from the Romano-British villa at Tarrant Hinton, among them one of only two known Roman force pumps in Britain, an Iron Age skeleton with the earliest known case of tuberculosis in Britain, a Verwood pottery collection, about 350 Valentine cards, and toys including an early Steiff bear. A walled garden with heritage fruit trees runs down towards the Mill Stream.

Highlights

• Roman force pump and wall paintings from the Tarrant Hinton villa
• Iron Age skeleton showing the earliest known tuberculosis in Britain
• One of the most complete Verwood pottery collections
• About 350 Valentine cards from 1792 to 1872
• Walled garden with a tea room, free to enter
• Hands-on family trails and a sensory shed

Permanent exhibitions

• Archaeology of Tarrant Hinton and Tarrant Man – Finds from the Romano-British villa at Tarrant Hinton, including a Roman force pump, and an Iron Age skeleton with early evidence of tuberculosis.
• Local life, trades and Verwood pottery – Galleries on domestic life, childhood, local firms such as the Coles ironmongers, and Verwood pottery.

Founded

1962

Admission & discounts

Tickets are annual passes valid for 12 months. Members enter free. Booking in advance is strongly advised, although tickets may be sold at the door subject to availability.

Accessibility

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

Ramped access runs throughout the museum and garden, with a platform lift on the ground floor. The book shop has a 200 mm step without a ramp, and single-width buggies fit through the museum but wider ones do not fit many doorways. There is an accessible toilet by the Tea Room with baby changing and an all-gender toilet on the ground floor, but no Changing Places toilet in Wimborne. A manual wheelchair, a rollator, a walking frame and folding stick seats can be borrowed free. Fixed hearing loops are at the front desk, the Tea Room counter and the Garden Room, and a portable loop is used for tours. Three disabled parking bays are outside the museum. Assistance and guide dogs are welcome, and well-behaved dogs are also allowed in the garden, Tea Room terraces and shops but not in the historic rooms and galleries. A free sensory shed, ear defenders, fidget items, sensory sacks, a visual story and a large-print guide are available.

Kids & families

Great for kids & families

• Family tours & workshops
• Activity booklet, scavenger hunt or kids’ audio guide
• Hands-on stations
• Stroller-friendly
• Baby changing facilities

Hands on History resources include trails, magnifying glasses, torches and Eye Spy games, and children can dress up as a Victorian schoolchild or use activity boxes in the galleries. There are school-holiday craft tables and workshops, and a garden trail. Breastfeeding is welcome, free nappies and wipes are available, and the Tea Room has highchairs.

Getting there & parking

The museum is opposite the Minster, with the front entrance on the High Street between Clarks and Saville Travel and the Tea Room and garden entrance next to Wimborne Library. There are 12 cycle spaces in Wimborne Square, about 50 yards away.

Amenities & dining

• Café
• Museum shop

The volunteer-run Tea Room overlooks the walled garden. There is also a gift shop with local food, gifts and crafts, a second-hand book shop in the Georgian book room, and an Information Centre on the High Street.

Events & venue rental

• Spaces for rent
• Private parties: not available

Up to 40 guests.

The Garden Room, about 7.2 by 6.6 metres, takes 35 to 40 people standing or in theatre style and is offered for society meetings, workshops and talks, from £19 per hour on weekdays until 5pm. The museum is not currently taking bookings for private parties.

Plan your visit