Bishop’s Stortford Museum
Bishop’s Stortford Museum opens the doors to the fascinating history of the town and surrounding area. With our mix of family friendly local history displays, holiday activities and themed walks and talks, we have something to offer the whole family. If you want to explore the history of the town even further why not pick up a Town Trail – they are free and available from the Museum and Tourist Information Centre. You can add a treat to your visit by taking a break in our Maltings Bar, themed to celebrate the town’s industrial heritage, which stocks a range of hot and cold drinks, snacks and Tiptree cakes.
Open Hours
Mon-Fri, 10am-5pm
Saturday 10am-4pm
Closed 25th and 26th December
Contact Us
01279 710204
museum@southmillarts.co.uk
Admission
Admission to the museum is free, donations are welcome
The Museum in Your Own Home!
Although we are now fully open again some of you may still prefer to visit us from the safety of your own home (or phone) using our virtual tour of the 2nd floor museum display. When you are in the tour you can “grab” the background with a left click of your mouse and pull the background to the left, right, up or down to look around. As you do this you will see icons embedded in the image. “Arrow” icons are to help you move from one area to the next, “i” icons display information when you hover your cursor over it. You can toggle between regular and full screen with the square icon at the top left corner of the tour.
Lady on a Motorbike
From the year of 2005 when Bishop’s Stortford Museum reopened, we established our mission to promote the importance of preserved and recorded memories of the past. The Museum as a cultural focal point always strived to offer a unique experience of sharing oral history narratives. This is how and why this booklet came about.
We encourage members of the local community to follow the example of Miss Joan Emerson and engage in the museum’s project in order to shape the future of oral history that can inspire and educate a variety of audiences interested in the town’s diverse history. This is an exciting resource that can bring subjects to life through the first-hand accounts of real people.
Read about Joan Emerson’s life in Bishop’s Stortford where she lived from 1918. Miss Joan Emerson passed away peacefully in May 2024, aged over 105 years.
Memories and Poems of Joan Emerson
In addition to the existing booklet inspired by an interview with Joan Emerson we are delighted that we came into possession of her own memories and touching poems that are available to share with you now.
Young Curators
We run a Young Curators project at the Bishop’s Stortford Museum which introduces local students to the world of museums.
Objects
Museums are all about objects – we use them to study and understand the past, how this has shaped the present and help us explore what the future might look like. Click to find out more about the objects in our collections.
People
Museums are all about people! Museums show how people, communities and places have changed over the years. However, we are also all about people today; we help people share knowledge, find out about different cultures and see what makes our community so special. If you would like to help us by volunteering at the museum please click here.
ARCHAEOLOGY AT WHITTINGTON WAY
Last year we hosted a display on the recent excavations carried out by Oxford Archaeology East at Whittington Way. Excavations like this are really transforming our understanding of the early development of Bishop’s Stortford and we are delighted that we were the first local venue to host the display. Although the display has now finished we have created a small virtual version of it so you can still stay up to date with this latest development even if you were unable to visit in person.
