Winchcombe Museum
Free volunteer-run local history museum in the Victorian Town Hall, with a fragment of the Winchcombe meteorite.
Have only individual sections read aloud
About the museum
Winchcombe Museum was founded in 1928 in a room above the porch of St Peter's Church. Eleanor Adlard started the collection with documents that the former High Bailiff Edmund Thomas Browne had saved. In 1983 a collector of police memorabilia, whose items were kept in the court room of the old Town Hall, invited the museum to share the building, and the displays moved to the ground-floor room.
Since 2016 the museum has concentrated on the history of Winchcombe, although a small police section remains. It is housed in the town's Victorian Town Hall, which has been updated in recent years with support from Winchcombe Town Trust while keeping its original features.
The collection holds more than 3,000 objects and 1,500 digital pictures covering over a thousand years of local history, with themes such as agriculture, trades and industry (including tanneries), the Arts and Crafts movement and social history. There are extensive family collections for family history research, and a database with more than 85,000 mentions of people from Winchcombe. Fragments of the Winchcombe meteorite, donated in 2021, are shown with a display about its fall to Earth.
Highlights
- Fragments of the Winchcombe meteorite
- Pair of fifteenth-century town maces
- Changing displays of local objects
- Family history resources and local people database
- Hands-on children's activities
Permanent exhibitions
- Winchcombe meteorite display – Fragments of the meteorite that fell near Winchcombe in 2021, with an explanation of its arrival on Earth.
- Local history collections – Objects and pictures on agriculture, trades such as tanning, Arts and Crafts and daily life in Winchcombe, plus a small police section.
- Founded
- 1928
Admission & discounts
Admission is free.
There is no entrance charge; the museum relies on donations.
Accessibility
- Wheelchair accessible
- Elevator
- Accessible restroom: no information
- 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
Step-free access to the ground floor and a lift to the two upstairs rooms.
Kids & families
Great for kids & families
- Hands-on stations
Children can make clay models and mosaic pictures and try an old American harmonium, which must be handled carefully.
Getting there & parking
By public transit
War Memorial (bus stop)
Stagecoach service W runs hourly from Cheltenham to Winchcombe (board on Pittville Street outside Primark, alight at the War Memorial). The nearest main-line station is Cheltenham Spa; the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway stops at Greet, about a mile away.
By car
Paid parking · 5-min walk to the entrance
Back Lane car park (GL54 5PZ) charges £1 for all-day parking; Bull Lane car park (GL54 5HX) is closer. Both are about a five-minute walk away.
The museum is in the town centre at the junction of North Street and Hailes Street. By car, follow the B4632 from Cheltenham or Broadway; satnav postcode GL54 5LJ.
Get directionsAmenities & dining
- Museum shop
Gift shop called The Undercroft, open the same hours as the museum. No cafe mentioned.
Events & venue rental
The museum hasn’t published any information on this.
