Collection: Mercian Regiment Museum (Worcestershire)

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  The Mercian Regiment Museum was originally established as the Worcestershire Regiment Museum at Norton Barracks, the Regimental Depot, in 1922. It was moved in the early 1970’s, to a self-contained gallery in the Worcester City Museum and Art Gallery in Foregate Street, Worcester, where it currently welcomes over 14,000 visitors a year. As the Worcestershire Regiment Museum it collected material from its two antecedent regiments the 29th and 36th Foot and from the Worcestershire Regiment. Following the amalgamation of the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiments in 1970 it collected material relating to the newly formed WFR. Following the amalgamation of the Cheshire Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment and the Staffordshire Regiment to form the Mercian Regiment it has collected material relating to the Mercian Regiment.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2022

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  The Mercian Regiment Museum currently collects artefacts and documents relating to The Worcestershire Regiment and its antecedents (comprising the 29th and 36th Regiments, The Worcestershire Militia and Worcestershire Volunteers), to its successors (The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment and The Mercian Regiment) and to the adversaries on those campaigns in which these regiments have fought.

  The collection of Archives contains private, regimental and business papers. The Photographic collection comprises an estimated 1500 images dating from the 1870s to the present day. The collection also embraces pictorial works of art, together with three-dimensional arts and crafts such as sculpture, ceramics and silver. The collection includes soldier-made craft objects, as well as ceramics and mess ware. The museum also holds works on paper, oil paintings, and items of silver.

  The Museum’s collection of Printed Books includes holdings of regimental histories, campaign histories, biographies and other official publications.

  The collection includes over 300 items of uniform and other garments dating from the early nineteenth century to the present day, In addition it holds almost 66 colours, 200 badges, and,2500 medals including 6 Victoria Crosses. The Museum’s collection of weapons covers those used by the British soldier from the Peninsula to the present day, and includes around 93 edged weapons and 96 firearms; together with items of personal equipment, musical instruments and personal records of many of those who have served in the regiments. Apart from the Militia, whose origins go back to the early medieval period, the other components were formed from 1694 and relate to Worcestershire and those places where the regiments have been based. The period of collecting therefore dates from around 1694 to the present and, in respect of The Mercian Regiment, into the future.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2022

  Licence: CC BY-NC