Our Collections

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Read about the history of Malton Museum

Background to the Collections

It is known that Antiquarians were collecting in Malton during the 18th and 19th centuries, but the museum’s main collections come from excavations that took place between 1925 and 1970.  The Museum also holds archaeological material from subsequent, smaller excavations.

These collections have been augmented by generous donations from members of the public of a wide variety of objects, of all historical periods, from Malton, Norton and the surrounding area of Ryedale.

One significant donation was the metal detecting collection of the late Jim Halliday who had worked closely with the Portable Antiquities Scheme and various subject specialists to ensure that his finds were fully recorded and documented.  Another notable donation was a group of local pictures from the late Nigel Huddleston.

The museum’s collections comprise about 1,100 standard boxes of artefacts, of which 96% is archaeological material. It is only possible to display a small fraction of this at any one time in the current museum, but to compensate for this there is a rolling programme of changes to the contents of the display cases.

Collections Research

The following are links to pages that are the result of research into objects from the Malton museum collections by external subject specialists working in collaboration with the museum:

The Museum welcomes enquiries from anyone who wishes to study material and archives from its collections.  Please contact the Museum for further details.

Videos and 360 Degree Images

Peter Addyman has recorded for us a number of videos in which he talks about Malton Museum and some of the objects it holds.

A community project in 2017 produced some 360 degree images of objects from the Museum’s collections.

Collection Care Audit

The Museum benefitted from a collection care audit carried out in 2020.

The Collections

Follow the links below to find out about more about the objects belonging to the various collections.

Prehistory


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Medieval


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Post-medieval


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Excavation Photographs


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Halliday Collection


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