Barnsley Museums

09/06/2026

How do you support your wellbeing?

Volunteering can make a real difference to mental health and overall wellbeing. Thanks to funding from Awards for All, volunteering was able to continue through the winter months. Here are some of the helpful wellbeing tips shared by our volunteers.

09/06/2026

06/06/2026

Presenting: The Museum of Museums Windowsill

Our newest display (in the office) featuring donations from Royston Museum and Egham Museum

MuseumWeek

06/06/2026

On Volunteers' Week we'd like to give a shout out to our friends at Cawthorne Victoria Jubilee Museum a brilliant volunteer run museum which is open Saturdays and Sundays 2pm-5pm.

Once you've seen our new exhibition at Cannon Hall Museum, Park and Gardens which celebrates the history of the building which the Spencer Stanhopes called home for 300, head to Cawthorne Museum to learn more about the local artist Abel Hold.

05/06/2026

As we get towards the end of , we need to shout about these amazing stats from 2025-26. 🌟

- 423 individuals involved in volunteering
- 17,294 hours of time given
- An economic worth of £233,648
- 168 people used their Employer Supported Volunteering time to help us.

Volunteering is all about the amazing people who give us their energy and passion to support the places they love. Thank you to all of them. 🥳

05/06/2026

Day 5 of MuseumWeek is linked to

We're resharing our Julie's Bicycle article from 2024:

"Barnsley Museums wants to take sustainable, biodiverse and environmentally friendly approaches in our work, to benefit our venues and the wildlife that live there, create best practise, raise awareness and improve people’s wellbeing while doing so, while also improving our reputation in this area."

Read more: https://juliesbicycle.org/resource/barnsley-museums-supporting-green-spaces/

05/06/2026

"We have had such fun! We arrive to a stack of boxes and every time it is just like Christmas!

Usually there is a list of the items in the boxes, but often this has been written by someone who had little knowledge of textiles and costume. We open the boxes and find such a variety of things"

As part of Volunteers' Week we would like to say a huge thank to Susan and Liz who continue to help us with our textile collections. In the last few years they have worked their way through over 475 items!

Here's a blog Liz wrote for us about the project back in 2023
https://barnsleymuseums.art.blog/2023/11/03/volunteers-lifting-the-lid-on-barnsley-museums-textile-collections/

04/06/2026

is the MuseumWeek theme today.
Our objects can't speak but the donors of them can:

This bugle was played by Don Booker MBE in the Barnsley Army Cadet Force Band in 1943. In later years, it was converted into a table lamp.

The band was based at Barnsley Drill Hall, Eastgate, now occupied by the Barnsley Chronicle. The bandmaster was Reg Rapson who also played in a dance band.

Don passed away a few years ago but his story lives on - you can see this bugle the next time you visit Experience Barnsley: Museum & Discovery Centre

04/06/2026

is the MuseumWeek theme today.

Our objects can't speak but the donors of them can: This tin bowl belonged to Stanley Brazier and was the only thing he ever stole in his whole life.

Stan was taken prisoner by the Japanese at the fall of Singapore in WW2 and was placed in the notorious Changi Prison. He did not wish to eat his rations from a leaf so he took the bowl when he left prison. Whilst in prison, he started to inscribe the names of new friends onto the side of the bowl.

04/06/2026