Museum after hours

Museum after hours

19 May 2022, 5:00pm - 7:00pm

Join us for an opportunity to explore the Museum and galleries in our free monthly late opening.

 

  • Opening hours:

    Daily: 9.00am - 4.30pm
    Sunday: 10.00am - 4.00pm
    Bank Holidays: 10.00am - 4.00pm

  • Dorset Museum

    High West Street
    Dorchester DT1 1XA

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Our members enjoy special benefits all year round. Join us and support us in our crucial work preserving Dorset’s rich heritage for future generations.

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People's Dorset

Sweep through around 500,000 years of people’s history, from the Palaeolithic to the present day, on Dorset’s key themes of land, sea and community. Marvel at objects from some of Britain’s most important archaeological sites, from spectacular Bronze Age gold and finds from Maiden Castle – one of Britain’s largest Iron Age hillforts – to treasures from Roman Dorchester. Let your fingers walk Dorset’s ancient landscape on a large touchscreen. Then head forwards in time to see the belongings of Dorset’s prestigious families alongside items revealing agricultural workers’ hard lives. Move on to 20th-century Dorset to see how inventive people, creativity and enterprise helped shape its recent history.

c.6th to 7th century CE

Germanic style glass bowl fragment

This was a strongly curved, low drinking vessel with molten glass trailed around it for decoration. It is rare and only normally seen in the east and southeast of England.

People’s Dorset

43-410 CE

Engraved glass bowl from Colliton Park, Dorchester  

Engraved with followers of Dionysus, Greek god of wine.

People’s Dorset

43-410 CE

Shale table leg from a three-legged table 

Found in excavations at Colliton Park, Dorchester. Kimmeridge shale was used for many objects in Roman Dorset and beyond.

People’s Dorset

c.100 BCE - 53 CE

Stone and glass beads, both local and imported 

From an Iron Age burial at Langton Herring, these beads belonged to a young woman.

People’s Dorset

Early Bronze Age

Bronze Age beaker    

Beakers of this type are associated with the first objects made from metal. This beaker was found in Broadmayne.

People’s Dorset

70-50 BCE

Hoard of sixteen gold Durotrigian staters

Staters were the earliest coinage in Britain. Hoards of them were sometimes treated in similar ways to other deposits of special objects.

People’s Dorset

43-410 CE

Bronze plaque fragment, with engraved figure  

The engraved figure of Minerva discovered during excavations of the Roman Temple, Maiden Castle.

People’s Dorset

43-410 CE

Plait of red human hair  

Hair was preserved in several graves at the Roman cemetery at Poundbury because bodies were packed with gypsum. Women wore their hair long, often plaited and arranged on their head. The plaits were made of up to six strands, suggesting the help of a maid or hairdresser.

 

People’s Dorset

Mid-3rd century to mid-4th century CE

Glass jug from Bucknowle Roman Villa

A large, oval-shaped glass jug with distinctive chain handle. A rare survivor, this is one of the finest examples of Roman glassware ever discovered in Britain.

People’s Dorset

c.1935

Thatching at Grove House

Taken by M. H. Ouseley

Picture Library

c.1935

Thatching at Grove House

Taken by M. H. Ouseley

Picture Library

c.1935

Thatching at Grove House

Taken by M. H. Ouseley

Picture Library

c.1935

Thatching a rick a rick at Bredy Farm

Taken by M. H. Ouseley

Picture Library

1956

Milking time at Herrison Dairy

Taken L. Frisby

Picture Library

c.1935

Edgar Hawkins milking at Burton Bradstock

Taken by M.H. Ouseley

Picture Library

c.1960

Drink More Milk or from Producer to Consumer

Postcard

Picture Library

c.1920

Carey & Grimsdell butter factory, Dorchester

Picture Library

c.1935

Collecting milk from Manor Farm, Burton Bradstock

Taken by by M.H. Ouseley

Picture Library

Community Exhibition

18 February - 22 June 2023

The Art of Seeing: An exhibition of photographs by Dorchester Camera Club

The Club is delighted to have this opportunity to exhibit some of their members’ prints in the Dorset Museum together with an audio-visual presentation.

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Special Exhibition

22 March - 25 June 2023

ARTIST ROOMS Louise Bourgeois

Explore the work of Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010), one of the most important figures of modern and contemporary art. This spring Dorset Museum will show a major presentation of her work in this ARTIST ROOMS touring exhibition featuring works jointly owned by Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland.

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Special Display

29 March - 9 July 2023

PJ Harvey – Orlam

Dorset Museum is now displaying an archive of material relating to PJ Harvey’s verse novel Orlam.

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Tours

10 June 2023, 10:00am - 12:00noon

Roman Town House Tours

A guided tour of one of the best examples of a Roman Town House in England.

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Tours

17 June 2023, 10:00am - 12:00noon

Roman Town House Tours

A guided tour of one of the best examples of a Roman Town House in England.

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Tours

21 June 2023, 2:00pm - 2:45pm

Collections Discovery Centre Tour

Join our Collections Team for an opportunity to explore behind the scenes in the Museum’s Collections Discovery Centre.

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Museum after hours

22 June 2023, 5:00pm - 6:30pm

FREE | Museum After Hours

Join us for an opportunity to explore the Museum at this FREE late opening.

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Lecture

22 June 2023, 7:00pm - 8:30pm

ORIGINS: How the Earth Shaped Human History | Professor Lewis Dartnell

By taking us through millennia of human history, and billions of years into our planet’s past, Professor Lewis Dartnell tells us the ultimate origin story.

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Tours

24 June 2023, 10:00am - 12:00noon

Roman Town House Tours

A guided tour of one of the best examples of a Roman Town House in England.

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