Dooyoo want to see Dick Turpin's prison cell? (York Castle Museum)

Member Name: collingwood21

Product:	York Castle Museum
Date:	07/05/02 (163 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: CIty centre location, plenty to see and do, good cafe and shop, frindly staff

Disadvantages: Disabled visitors limited to which parts of the museum they can access

I have been to York several times, but strangely enough for me, the castle museum was one of the attractions that I didn't get around to visiting until just recently. To be honest, I was not quite sure what to expect from the museum (although the name implied that it was the history of the nearby castle), and visited more because it was cold outside rather than anything else! I was very pleasantly surprised though - it was far bigger than I had expected, and had won the York Tourism Award for best attraction for the past two years. And it was very quiet; I assume that everyone else must have been queuing up at Jorvik...


● Location
Personally, I think York is a wonderful place, and it is easily accessible from all over the north of England - I live in Newcastle, and it is just an hour away by train. The castle museum is located in the heart of the city next to Clifford's Tower, so you just need to follow the signs for the castle area. It is just 10 minutes walk away from the train station, and five minutes from Jorvik. The museum comprises the two large classical buildings on the edge of the green by the tower, and a smaller modern building that joins the two and has the entrance and gift shop. There is a car park outside, but you will have to be quite early to get a space, especially in summer when the city is busy.


● What is in the museum?
Well, I was wrong! The castle museum does not just house items relating to Clifford's Tower (although it does have on show some of the original bailey walls among other things), but has exhibits from 400 years of the social history of York. This means that it contains the history of the ordinary people of this region, representing area such as domestic life, childhood, technology, military service, costume and games.

To start with, you enter the first of the two large classical buildings, and are confronted with recreated domestic settings, gradually
going back in time from Victorian to Late Medieval. Much of the material has been salvaged from houses around the city and restored, with evocative smells added to help recreate the times you are looking at. So in the Victorian room you can smell polish from the furniture, while the older rooms smell smoky from the open fires. Moving on, you are taken through rooms with traditional museum-style glass cases containing objects from every conceivable aspect of life over the past four centuries. There is so much to look at and take in that it can get quite overwhelming at times!

Upstairs, you are then taken into the museum's brand new exhibition (it only opened in March of this year), called "Spotless". Granted, the history of keeping clean does not sound the most thrilling of things, but the museum has done a lovely job in presenting the material, and have included a number of recorded oral histories to give it a more personal touch. My mum especially enjoyed this section, although she said that seeing some of the items she remembered from childhood made her feel a bit ancient! :-)

The next gallery has to be one of my favourites - "From cradle to grave; birth death and marriage 1700 to 2000". While wedding dresses may be popular favourites in any social history museum, it is not often that you can read about attitudes to death and mourning (for example, a Victorian widow had to be in official mourning for a full 2 and a half years after the death of her husband!) and see items relating to babies and childbirth. Although I have to admit that seeing the midwife's equipment from the turn of the century did make me a bit squeamish! I especially liked the way that two wedding case studies were displayed by the museum, of woman married a few years ago compared with that of her grandmother. Needless to say, this was a very popular gallery amongst female visitors, so it did get a bit crowded in here, despite the quietnes
s of the rest of the museum.

The impressive size of the museum buildings has also allowed for staff to recreate a complete street from Victorian Kirkgate and an area of Edwardian shops, all of which you are free to wander around. Sound effects have been added to help bring the streets back to life, such as the clinking of glasses in the inn, and the sound of coins being counted in the bank. Leaving the streets, you come back into the entrance area and can take a break in the museum gift shop, before heading into the second of the two buildings for the rest of the exhibitions.

In this second building, you can visit recreated farms, stables and dairies, and go on to see the old cells that were once used when the castle was a city prison. Included of course are plenty of stories about famous criminals (including notorious highwayman Dick Turpin), trials and punishment through the past 400 years. Fascinating, if a bit gory! If you have got an energy left after seeing all this, then you can go outside and visit the old watermill that has been built on the river bank from salvaged remains of sites across Yorkshire, and play some old-fashioned games (such as hopscotch and spinning tops) in the old prison exercise yard.

In the final cluster of galleries are costumes, childhood, arms & armour and the inevitable WW2 display. What is interesting about this last section though is that is tells you that it is not a history of the war itself, but of the local people between 1939 and 1945 - there are personal stories of ARP wardens, rationing, what is was like to be bombed and of conscientious objectors (something you don't often come across in museums). This was such a breath of fresh air from the usual method of exhibiting items from the war. There was also an excellent range of materials on display to back up the text.


● The good bits
The pros of the York Castle Museum are:
- excellent central location
-
loads to see and do
- good concession discount on entry fee
- variety of display techniques used
- friendly helpful staff
- most interpretation is well done
- some hands-on activities available


● The bad bits
However much I enjoyed my visit, there was downside to the museum:
- disabled access limited to ground floor only
- poor security has led to the theft of some items
- some of the galleries were a bit old fashioned
- those on low incomes may find it too expensive to visit


● Worth the effort of visiting?
Certainly, yes! Although the entrance prices may seem a little high, I spent a good three hours in the museum and could have been there longer if I had had more time - this was for just £3.50. Compare that to the £6 I spent on visiting Jorvik Viking Centre, where I spent only about an hour. There are a good variety of things to see, and visitors are well catered for with plenty of toilets, a good café and gift shop and helpful attendants. It can be well combined with the castle and/or Viking centre for a good day out in the city. I would certainly recommend this as a family day out; the children I saw there seemed to love it, especially when they were allowed to play with the old toys outside. Not so good if you are in a wheelchair though, I'm afraid, as you will pay the same entrance fee but have access to only a small range of galleries available.

The museum does claim to be the finest social history museum in England - from what I have seen of it, I am not going to argue with that!


● Details
The York Castle Museum is open April-October 9.30am to 5pm, and November -March 9.30am to 4.30pm.

Adults - £5.95
Concessions - £3.50
Children - £3.50
Family ticket (2 adults, up to 3 children) - £16

Information Line - (08457) 660280

Enquiries - (01904) 653611

Email - castle.museum@york.gov.uk
r>Website - www.york.gov.uk/heritage/museums/castle/

Disabled Access Information - www.doherty71.freeserve.co.uk/c_museum.htm