THE COUNTY HALL AND MUSEUM COLLECTION
The
Museum is now closed until Spring 2012
Please see the The
New Museum page for the latest
update
One of
Abingdon’s oldest and most beautiful buildings, the County Hall
was built between 1678 and 1684 by Christopher Kempster, a
protégé of Sir Christopher Wren. It was built to house the
Berkshire Assize Courts, the location for 200 years of some of
the County’s most important criminal trials. For example, a man
named Dennis Collins, arrested at Ascot Races for throwing a
stone at His Majesty King William IV, had his trial at Abingdon
on Wednesday 22nd August, 1832. Collins’ sentence of death was
commuted to transportation for life!
In 1919, on 17th February, three local men offered their
collections of local objects on loan to Abingdon Borough Council
to enable the setting up of a museum in the town. Mr John West,
Dr P. Martin and Mr Thomas Townsend donated:
๏ 25
cases of geology and minerals.
๏ 10
cases of shells and corals.
๏ 14
cases of zoological exhibits.
๏ 5
human skeletons found when excavating the basement of a local
inn.
In addition, the museum stored a selection of craft from the
former Southern Arts Collection, donated to the County in 1998.
This comprised 90 pieces including work by Kate Malone, Alan Caiger-Smith, Wendy Ramshaw, Jim Partridge and Lubna Chowdhary.
