Bedford Museum This For Human And Natural History

Opening Times:
Tuesday to Saturday 11am–5pm
Sunday 2pm-5pm

Address:
Castle Lane
Bedford MK40 3XD
Bedfordshire

Phone: 01234 353 323

URL: http://www.bedfordmuseum.org/

Type of Museum: Human and Natural History

The most well known museum that you can find in Bedford is the Bedford Museum. Located in the picturesque gardens of the Bedford Castle mound and the banks of the great River Ouse, the museum is housed in what was once the Higgins and Sons Brewery.

The collections that are contained within the museum’s walls are centered on the natural and human history of Bedford and the areas that surround the borough. There are more than 20,000 items here including weapons and tools from the Palaeolithic up to the medieval era. The numismatics collection of the museum is comprised of tokens, coins, medallions, jetton and medals. Fossils and rocks local to Bedford make up the geology collection, which includes coiled ammonite shells and fossils of the Jurassic era. Insects, mammals, birds and plants displayed in cases depicting their natural habitats are also exhibited in the museum.

The origins of the museum can be seen in the in the special display of the donations made by the pupils of the old Bedford Modern School. The exhibit includes information on the collectors who donated what they had gathered to the collections that are now in the museum as well as a number of natural history specimens from the county. The museum, which also has an Ethnography and Foreign Archaeology collection, can be visited for free during its scheduled opening hours.