Maidstone Museum facts for kids
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| Established | 1858 |
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| Location | St Faiths Street, Maidstone, Kent, England ME14 1LH |
| Type | Regional museum, regimental museum, art gallery, heritage centre, historic house museum |
| Public transit access | Maidstone public transport Maidstone East railway station; Arriva Southern Counties for buses. |
Maidstone Museum is a fantastic museum located in Maidstone, Kent, England. It's run by the local council and has amazing collections from all over the world. You can explore fine art, learn about nature, and discover human history. The museum building itself is very old and special, listed as a Grade II* building, which means it's historically important.
Contents
Discovering Maidstone Museum's History
The story of Maidstone Museum began in 1855. A local doctor and history lover named Thomas Charles left his amazing collections of art and old objects to the Maidstone Council. He wanted his collections to be kept safe in Maidstone forever and called the "Charles Museum."
So, the Council bought Dr. Charles's house, which was called Chillington Manor. In 1858, they opened it as the Charles Museum. Later, it was renamed Maidstone Museum. This museum was one of the first in the UK to open because of a special law called the Museums Act (1845). It also helped start the Museums Association in 1909, which is a group that supports museums.
The Museum Building: A Journey Through Time
The main part of the museum is an old Elizabethan manor house. It was finished in 1577, but some parts are even older, from the Tudor time. In the early 1700s, a large new section was added to the west side of the house.
After Thomas Charles passed away, the Maidstone Council bought the building in 1856 for £1,200. They spent another £300 to fix it up. On January 20, 1858, the museum officially opened. It was one of the first museums in the UK to be run by a local council. Edward Petty, a friend of Thomas Charles, became the first curator in September of that year.
As the museum's collections grew, the building needed more space. A new wing was added to the east side in 1869. Then, in 1873, another new wing was built on the west side, thanks to donations from a famous explorer named Julius Brenchley.
In 1889, the eastern side was made even bigger to create the Bentlif Art Gallery. This gallery was paid for by Samuel Bentlif to display the art collection of his brother, George. On the western side, the Victoria Gallery was built between 1897 and 1899. This part housed the town's library and was built to celebrate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. The Bentlif Wing was expanded again in 1923.
Exploring the Museum's Amazing Collections
Maidstone Museum has the largest and most varied collections in Kent. It's one of the most important museums in the south-east of England, outside of London. Over almost 150 years, collectors, staff, and generous people have helped create a huge collection of objects from all over the world.
The museum has over 600,000 items! Three of its collections are especially important:
- Anglo-Saxon – This is the best collection of objects from the richest Anglo-Saxon area of Britain.
- Japanese – This is one of the largest and most important Japanese collections outside London.
- The Brenchley Collection – This is a huge and varied collection of items from around the world. It includes objects from different cultures, natural history specimens, and beautiful art. These were all collected by the Victorian explorer, Julius Brenchley.
Human History: Stories from the Past
The Human History collections have about 125,000 objects. The British archaeology collection covers Kent and other areas. The internationally famous Anglo-Saxon collection has about 4,000 objects from Kent.
The foreign archaeology section includes interesting items like Gandhara heads and over 400 ancient Egyptian objects. A cool new item added in 2009 was a kernos from Melos in Greece. This object is 4,000 years old and was possibly used to hold offerings like honey and oats. There are only eight of these in the world!
The local history collections are very diverse. They show all parts of local life in Maidstone. You can see collections of weapons and armour, clocks and watches, and over 18,000 coins and medals. The collection of photographs and maps is important for understanding local history. There are also over 10,000 printed items that tell the story of Kent.
The museum also has important collections of objects from the Pacific, Oceanic, and African cultures. There are also diverse items from Asia and North and South America. Did you know Napoleon's chair has been in the museum since 1866? He used to sit in this chair while exiled on St Helena and even damaged it with his penknife while talking!
The Arts: Creativity and Beauty
The Fine and Applied Art collections have about 25,000 items. They include furniture from the 17th to 19th centuries, musical instruments, toys and games, ceramics, glass, costumes, and needlework. You can also see paintings, prints, drawings, and sculpture. A favorite exhibit for local people is the Lady Godiva statue by John Thomas.
The ceramics collection is the most important in the region. It has about 700 English pieces and 250 European pieces. The collection of Chinese ceramics is also very complete, mostly from the 17th to 19th centuries. There are about 8,000 costumes dating from the 17th to 21st centuries. The needlework collections have about 700 items, including English embroidery and samplers, European embroideries, and Eastern textiles.
The Japanese collections of fine and decorative art are very important and studied a lot. They include ceramics, sword fittings, netsuke, lacquer, and books. There's also a series of over 750 Edo-period (1600–1868) woodblock prints.
The museum has 580 oil paintings, including some older European paintings and British works from the 19th and 20th centuries. The watercolour collection includes over 200 works by Albert Goodwin, which is the largest public collection of his art. There are also works by local artist James Jefferys.
Natural History: Exploring the Natural World
The natural history section has about 450,000 specimens! Many of these are very important both nationally and internationally.
The bird collections include 1,800 mounted British birds and 400 foreign birds. There are also over 1,100 cabinet skins, 300 birds’ nests, and a collection of bird's eggs from most British bird species. The Herbarium has about 30,000 plant specimens from the British Isles. There's also a British collection of about 6,000 specimens of important plant genera like Rubus, Taraxacum, and Hieracium. This Herbarium collection was used to create "Philp's Atlas of the Kent Flora," which is a book about the plants of Kent.
The entomology collection has about 250,000 specimens, making it a very complete collection of British insects. There's also an important collection of several thousand shells. Most of these are from tropical marine areas, but some are from temperate marine and freshwater areas, and tropical terrestrial species.
The collections of palaeontology (the study of fossils) and vascular plants are very important for the whole country. They include special type specimens and documented examples. The plant collection includes important specimens for Kent and the nationally important Hawkweed (West) Collection. The main strengths of the palaeontology collection are marine fossils from the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods in Kent, especially from Chalk, Lower Greensand, and Lenham Beds. There's also a large collection of Pleistocene vertebrate fossils and fossils from the Kent Coalfield.
The museum also has a worldwide collection of rocks (46,000) and minerals (7,000). It has one of the most complete mineral collections in the country, outside of the national museums.
The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment Museum
The The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment Museum is a separate charity that has been located inside Maidstone Museum since 1964. It's one of the fifteen public galleries you can visit. This museum has a collection of over 3,000 medals from the regiment, including four Victoria Crosses, which are the highest awards for bravery in the British military.
