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Kilmartin House Trust (changed to Kilmartin Museum Trust in 2013, and as of 2016, Kilmartin Museum Company Ltd) was founded by Mrs Rachel Clough (now Butter) under a Deed of Declaration of Trust in 1994. The Museum had a small founding collection of archaeological artefacts including flint and stone artefacts from Argyll donated by Marion Campbell of Kilberry. Since 2003, under the Directorship of Director and Curator Dr Sharon Webb, the Museum has collected all the archaeological artefacts which have been available through the Treasure Trove system in Mid Argyll and Lorne. From 2022, Dr Sharon Webb became Head of Collections and Engagement and has responsibility for collections development.

In 2019, the Prehistoric Collections were ‘Recognised’ as Nationally Significant by Museums, Galleries Scotland on behalf of Scottish Government.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2022

Licence: CC BY-NC

Kilmartin Museum’s Prehistoric Collection comprises over 11,600 artefacts including internationally significant archaeological objects discovered across Argyll and is an essential resource for anyone wishing to explore the early story of Scotland.

Archaeology

The core of Kilmartin Museum’s collections is its archaeological material. Some of the more significant items include:

• Assemblage from excavations at Upper Largie Quarry, conducted between 1982 and 2005 in advance of quarrying activity at Upper Largie Farm, Kilmartin Glen. The excavations revealed abundant evidence of prehistoric ritual activity dating from the Mesolithic to Middle Bronze Age periods on a gravel terrace overlooking the northern end of the Glen. Monuments found at the site included a post-defined cursus, a post row and Scotland’s largest Timber Circle. Artefacts from the site include the internationally important Prehistoric Upper Largie Assemblage, which includes three of the earliest Beaker Pots ever found in Britain, and a Bronze Age footed food vessel which is unique to Scotland. As well as other Bronze Age pottery and flint artefacts, the assemblage also includes human remains.
• Excavation material from the Bruach an Druimein settlement site, Kilmartin.
• Excavation material from Brainport Bay, Minard, and surface finds from surrounding area.
• Prehistoric material from Argyll including Kilmartin, North and South Knapdale parishes, and the islands of Tiree and Jura, acquired as part of the Marion Campbell of Kilberry Bequest, and via Treasure Trove allocations.
• Various prehistoric stone tools found by chance and by excavation from the Mid Argyll region.
• Quern stones.
• 9th century Christian cross fragments.
• Metal work, including Viking ‘ring money’ from Dunbeg, Oban.
• Assemblage of material from a cave site near Oban, including human remains.
• Bronze Age cremation assemblage from Glennan, Ford, Mid Argyll, including prehistoric pottery and human remains.
• Medieval and later metalwork finds from Dunbeg, Oban.
• The excavation archive from the rock art site at Torbhlaren, six miles from Kilmartin. This assemblage is important because it constitutes one of the very few collections of material from a rock art site in Britain. The Torbhlaren excavations, directed by Dr Andrew Jones of Southampton University in the early 2000s, also revealed some of the earliest evidence of farming in Scotland. This material was excavated as part of the Animate Landscape Project directed by Dr Andrew Jones of Southampton University, conducted in the early 2000’s. Finds include 45 hammer stones radiocarbon dated to 2920-2760 BC, suggesting they were used to make rock art, as well as worked flint and pitchstone (sourced in Prehistory from the Isle of Arran).
• The Isle of Coll Hoard – 13 fragments of later Bronze Age metal objects deposited in a bog on the Isle of Coll including fragments of swords, and complete spearheads.
• Bronze axes from Dunollie Castle and Inveraray.
• An early Bronze Age copper axe from Taynuilt.
• Excavation assemblage from the Ormaig Rock Art site, which includes flint tools, utilised pebbles and hammer stones that may relate to the creation of the rock art. The excavation was undertaken by Kilmartin Museum as part of the Dalriada Project.
• A small excavation assemblage from a previously unrecorded dun known as Barnagad, found by Kilmartin Museum and excavated as part of the Dalriada Project.
• Possible medieval and post medieval material from Robber’s Den, Loch Lusgun, Lagan Craiglass discovered during excavations carried out by Kilmartin Museum as part of the Dalriada Project.
• Material from other Kilmartin Museum excavations including Taynish Mill (undertaken on behalf of Scottish Natural Heritage).
• An excavation assemblage from a former tacksman’s house at Glennan undertaken by Dr Heather James (formerly of Guard Archaeology, Glasgow University).
• An important 10th century AD Norse burial including grave goods and human skeletal material from Cnoc nan Gall, Colonsay.
• A hoard of Bronze Age axeheads found at Ardkinglass.
• A fragment of a Bronze Age axehead found at Dunamuck, Kilmartin.

Geology

The current collection consists of material collected as samples of raw materials used by peoples in prehistory.

Paper Archive and Photography

The collection consists of material relating to archaeological survey and research in Argyll including papers, letters, maps, drawings, plans and photographs. Some of the more significant items include:

• material relating to Miss Marion Campbell of Kilberry and Mary Sandeman’s archaeological survey of Argyll, which took place in the 1950s,
• material relating to Miss Marion Campbell of Kilberry’s novels and other publications, 1950s- 2000s,
• photographs of archaeological monuments and the landscape taken by various photographers including David Lyons during the construction of the Museum gallery and audio visual show between 1994 and 1997,
• photographs, maps, plans and drawings relating to Stan Beckensall’s research on the rock art of Kilmartin,
• photographs, maps, plans and archaeological reports relating to archaeological research conducted by Roderick Regan, Sharon Webb and others, for Kilmartin Museum Trust (formerly Kilmartin House Trust) from 2004 onwards.
• photographs taken by Dr Aaron Watson of some of the major Kilmartin monuments and artefacts in the Collections.

Library Collections

The publications in the Library mostly belong to the Marion Campbell Collection, bequeathed to Kilmartin Museum in 2001. The Library also houses books and journals belonging to the Natural History and Archaeological Society of Mid Argyll (NHASMA).

The library collection contains books and research papers on local, Scottish, British, European and world history and archaeology, nature (subdivided into animals, birds, plants, etc.), geography, geology, crafts, fiction (mostly, though not all, books written by Marion Campbell), and a small number of books written in languages other than English, guidebooks, maps, journals relating to the Museum sector, and journals relating to archaeology and natural history. There are also a variety of pamphlets, and reports and publications produced by Kilmartin Museum. There are card indexes listing all the publications held in the library.

Commissioned Replicas

The collection consists of a number of commissioned replicas of prehistoric objects for educational use.

Fine Art

The small collection consists of a number of works illustrating the area’s archaeology and natural history, and all dating to the 1990’s, 2000’s and work commissioned in 2022 to commemorate the opening of the newly Redeveloped Museum.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2022

Licence: CC BY-NC

Before 2001, the Trust was only responsible for a much smaller establishment, comprising King John’s House and Tudor Cottage, both wholly owned by the Trust. The old gun shop (No 13 Church Street) and the surrounding gardens were in private hands. The Trust only had pedestrian access to the entrance of King John’s House.

The exhibits then displayed were those lent by Miss Moody (the last of the ‘gun shop’ Moodys). They came from members of Miss Moody’s private trust and were in the separate care of an ‘Exhibits Trust’ (not a registered charity). The individuals who lent items to this Exhibits Trust have since died, so tracing ownership, although complicated, is now being investigated.

In 2001 the Trust took over the running of the old Moody gun shop building and gardens (now leased from Test Valley Borough Council) and began to collect items in its own right. Initially, it also accepted some long-term loans that were relevant to the complex in its care. Most of these came from the Hampshire County Museum Service, now the Hampshire Cultural Trust.

In 2013 the Trust became owners of the most significant long-term loan in its care, namely the Moody Collection, which has particular relevance to 13 Church Street. This was transferred to the Trust by the executor of the last owner.

In 2019 a further long-term loan of relevant, local archaeological material was received from the Hampshire Cultural Trust.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2023

Licence: CC BY-NC

The current collections focus on the local history of Romsey and district, the most important being those that specifically relate to King John’s House, its fabric and archaeology, and to 13 Church Street and the Moody family. The collections have been acquired over time in a variety of ways and under a variety of terms, as follows:

• • Trust Collection, comprising artefacts loaned by various local inhabitants (since deceased) to the Moody Private Trust.
  • King John’s House & Tudor Cottage Trust Collection (KJH&TC Trust), comprising items donated into the direct ownership of the Trust.
  • Moody Collection (Trust-owned since 2013), comprising important memorabilia of the family that owned the whole museum complex until 1974 (No 13 Church Street from 1875, run as a home + gun shop, cutlery and field sports business; the rest of the site from 1918).
  • NOTE: The Moodys were responsible for instigating the original identification of KJH in 1927 and opening it to the public thereafter.
  • Exhibits Francis J. Green FSA Collection, comprising artefacts mainly displayed in the Moody Parlour scene and currently recorded in simple inventory format.
  • The Hampshire Cultural Trust has provided long-term loans of furniture, historic guns, social history and archaeological items, all on five-year rolling programmes.
  • There are some other long-term loans of assorted individual items

Short-Term Loans are negotiated for specific exhibitions, usually for about 3 months. Long-term loans will be avoided in the future unless of high significance.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2023

Licence: CC BY-NC

The Axbridge and District Museum Trust (hereafter known as ‘the Trust’) now (since 2023) owns the collections of what was once the Axbridge Archaeological and Local History Society (hereafter known as ‘AALHS’) in addition it manages the collections on behalf of two owning bodies, which are Axbridge Town Trust and items relevant to Axbridge that were held by Sedgemoor District Council (now, since 2023 part of Somerset County Council). These form the permanent collections of the Museum.

Where the term ‘the Museum’ is hereafter used it will be used to refer both to the Trust, and/ or to the owning bodies, as the context requires. The Museum is housed in a late medieval merchant’s house, known as King John’s Hunting Lodge. It has been leased from the National Trust since 1976.

The Museum manages, documents, preserves, exhibits and interprets archaeological and local history material associated with Axbridge and the surrounding area, for the benefit, research and education of the local community and the general public.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2025

Licence: CC BY-NC

At present the Museum holds around 2000 objects in the following collections:
45% archaeological material
40% social history
9% archival
6% geological
About 62% of the total collection belonged to the AALHS

Archaeology

Comprises general material from excavations and finds from the Mendip Hills area. A significant part of the collection is material from the Roman sites at Star and Wint Hill, and human remains from Hay Wood Cave. The majority of the collection is derived from fieldwork by the AALHS. The date range and variety of the pottery has been described by a leading authority as

“…one of the most important corpora of material from any town or village in Somerset…even unsurpassed by a much larger quantity found in the county town of Taunton…only outside the county does one find a comparable date range, or such exotic imports, from such towns as Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth and Southampton.”
Richard Coleman-Smith

Social History

A collection of items related to the history of the town of Axbridge and villages included within the collecting area noted below in section 4. There is a particular emphasis on the documents and regalia of the ancient Borough of Axbridge, early schooling in the town, the Union Workhouse (serving over 40 local villages) and local tradesmen and shopkeepers. We have an interesting group of long case clocks, all made in the town, by a variety of clockmakers. Some rationalisation is taking place with a greater emphasis on various aspects of Axbridge as a market town over the one thousand years of its existence, the part the local community played in the two World Wars and the Mendip mining industry. Planned temporary exhibitions will use the collections and/or materials from other local sources, to look at social and cultural history, local archaeology and aspects of contemporary life relating to Axbridge and the villages in our collecting area.

Geology

Rocks, minerals and fossils from the Axbridge area, with some examples from further afield. A significant part of the collection comes from the Banwell Bone Caves and is part of the collection from the AALHS.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2025

Licence: CC BY-NC

Military

The collection relates to the KOSB since formation in 1689 until the present and consists of silver, weapons, medals, uniforms, books, manuscripts, maps, pictures and other documents and some ethnographic material from 1880-1910 and 1936.

Oral History Collection

War experiences of Kings Own Scottish Borderers Tapes and VCRs of interviews with soldiers of the KOSB from two world wars.

Ethnography

Small collection of objects from when the Regiment served in Egypt and the Sudan in 1880s -1910 and Palestine in 1936. Includes material from North Africa, the Arabian Gulf, Arabia, South East Asia and possibly Melanesia and photographs taken while on tour.

Library

A collection of books and periodicals on military history, in particular relating to the King’s Own Scottish Borderers and the Scottish Division. Includes full runs of regimental journals and some Army Lists from 1820s onwards 17th to 21st centuries.

Subjects

Military History; Geography and History

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC

Personalia Collection

The museum has items relating to William Cookworthy, the founder of English porcelain, who was born in Kingsbridge. He was an apothecary with a shop in Plymouth.

Subjects

Personalia

Photographic Collection

There is a large collection of photographs illustrating the history, topography and people of Kingsbridge and its locality.

Subjects

Photographic equipment

Archives Collection

The collection includes trade directories for Kingsbridge Rural District for 1859, 1866, 1875, 1889, 1910, 1914 and 1926. The Kingsbridge Gazette is available from 1958 on microfiche; there are photographic copies of tithe maps and apportionments 1839-40; and there are the Courtenay Estate maps of 1777. There are registers for all Kingsbridge junior schools for 1894-97, 1900-01. The Old Grammar School registers for 1899 -1901 survive. In addition there are local trade account books and invoices, letters and magazines.

Subjects

Archives

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC

Muybridge Collection

Kingston Museum holds a very large collection of the photographic work of Eadward Muybridge (1830-1904), who experimented with using photography to record movement. On display at the museum you can see the original Zoopraxiscope moving image projector, Muybridge’s binunial lantern with which he delivered his famous lecture tours on the Attitudes of animals in motion, a rare panorama of San Francisco (1878) and assorted packing crates and ephemera. At the Local History Research Library in the North Kingston Centre on Richmond Road, is the reserve collection (viewable by appointment) of Muybridge’s lantern slides, zoopraxiscope discs, prints and a newspaper cutting book which Muybridge kept of his career and achievements.

Local History Collection

This collection includes a wide range of material from prehistoric times to the present; archives, museum and local studies collections are managed as one department. These collections include flint artefacts from the Thames, bronze weaponry dating from 900BC, Roman coins and a Saxon human burial, 14th century boat timbers from the Thames waterfront at Kingston, a medieval kiln reconstruction, the Corporation’s weights and measures, Borough regalia and Borough Archives from 1208 onwards, a half scale model of Turk’s Boatyard interior, material from the East Surrey Regiment, products and other material from local industries, a penny farthing and a boneshaker, clothing and domestic items, local books and directories, maps, newspapers, photographs and paintings of historic Kingston, New Malden and Surbiton and taped reminiscences.

Numismatics Collection

Kingston Museum has an impressive collection of local seventeenth century traders’ tokens on display in its permanent galleries. Sixteen of these were part of an important country-wide collection owned by a private collector and were purchased in 1996 with the help of the National Art Collections Fund. Kingston suffered badly during the Civil Wars; its bridge over the Thames made it strategically important and it changed allegiance between Royalist armies and the Parliamentarian army four times. Serious shortages of supplies resulted and even small change was in short supply. 17 local traders issued 21 different tokens, square as well as round. Charming images displayed on the tokens include a crane (a bird) and three coneys (rabbits), indicating the inn signs from which two traders operated. A number display three fishes from Kingston’s coat of arms or coats of arms of trading guilds. The tokens were a big success and though illegal were tolerated until 1672 , when Charles II banned them and official coins were issued in larger numbers. The following tradesmen are represented in the collection: Edward Buldwin, Henry Male, Stephen Hubbard, Stephen Feilder and James Levitt.

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC

Social History Collection

The collection dates mainly from the Victorian and Edwardian period. There is a significant quantity of militaria from both World Wars, including Civil Defence items, etc. The collection includes many household and domestic items, mainly from the Victorian and Edwardian period.

Subjects

Civil defence; People (society); Social History; Home economics; Life in wartime; People

Costume and Textile Collection

Costume, samplers and embroidery. The collection includes costume, samplers and embroidery.

Subjects

Costume (leisurewear); Textiles; Costume and Textile

Decorative and Applied Art Collection

A small collection of decorative china.

Subjects

Ceramics; Decorative and Applied Arts

Geology Collection

There is a small collection of local fossils.

Subjects

Fossils; Geology

Science and Industry Collection

There is material from Kington Foundry around 1900, from the 1820 horse drawn Tramroad, and from the railway. There are also tools from a variety of trades such as blacksmiths, plumbers, and carpenters. There is a small group of objects of local origin.

Subjects

Industry and commerce; Iron and steel manufacture; Science and Industry; Wood; Trams; Metal working; Railways (national)

Archaeology Collection

There are some items of Romano-British pottery, some medieval roof tiles, and some clay pipe bowls and stems. This is a small collection of local material.

Subjects

Archaeology; Archaeology (settlement); Roman Empire

Photographic Collection

Photographs and postcards date mainly from around 1900. Photographs and postcards date mainly from around 1900 and show townscapes, local people, the railway, etc.

Subjects

Photography

Other

Agriculture; Archives; Arms and Armour; Medicine; Music; Western European; Coins and Medals; Numismatics; Personalia; Transport; Maritime

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC