Totnes Museum

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The Victorian nursery at Totnes Museum, with the courtyard through the window
A turret clock mechanism by William Stumbels on display at Totnes Museum

Totnes Museum (formerly Totnes Elizabethan House Museum) is a local museum in the town of Totnes, south Devon, in southwest England.[1]

The museum is housed in an Elizabethan merchant's house that was built c.1575 for the Kelland family. The house has many original features and has been carefully restored.

Totnes Museum extends over two buildings and three floors including twelve main gallery rooms, a courtyard, and a herb garden.[2] The collections[3] date from 5000BC onwards, including coins minted in Totnes during Saxon times, and concern the cultural, economic, and social history of Totnes.[4]

The galleries include a Babbage Room, presenting Charles Babbage, the Victorian mathematician who invented the Difference Engine and Analytical Engine, mechanical precursors of the modern computer. Babbage spent his youth in Totnes and studied at King Edward VI Grammar School there.

The site also contains the Totnes Archive and Local History Library at the rear of the building which contains information for study of Totnes, South Devon and other related material – books, fiches, transcripts, photographs, and local newspapers from 1860 – of particular interest to those seeking information on Totnes history, buildings and their own family connections in the area. The Totnes Archive is open for public drop-ins on Thursdays and Fridays.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Totnes Elizabethan Museum, Culture 24, UK.
  2. ^ Totnes Museum Archived 2011-06-15 at the Wayback Machine, Devon County Council, UK.
  3. ^ Collections – Totnes Elizabethan House Museum, Devon Museums Net, UK.
  4. ^ Totnes Elizabethan House Museum, Devon Museums Net, UK.

External links[]

Coordinates: 50°25′53″N 3°41′12″W / 50.43134°N 3.68662°W / 50.43134; -3.68662

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