Collection: Ashburton Museum

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  Originally started in a private house, the museum moved to the tower of St Lawrence Chapel and when it outgrew that, in 1962 it moved to the old blacksmith’s shop behind the chapel (part of the old grammar school site).  By 1968 it moved again to its present site in the centre of Ashburton in a building which was once a brush factory.

  It houses a unique collection, which, in addition to items of local interest, includes a large collection of North American Indian artefacts which were donated by an ex-Ashburtonian, Paul Endacott, after emigrating to America.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2017

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  The Museum collections consist of three parts:

  1. objects relating to the geology, archaeology and prehistory of the surrounding area of Dartmoor;
  2. objects relating to the past history, culture and habits of the people of Ashburton;
  3. the North American Indian collection and a few objects of ethnographical interest acquired in the early days of the Museum’s existence.

  All the objects are housed in a small three storied house built in part over the Ashburn stream.  On the ground floor is a collection of bottles of mainly local interest (eg Ashburton pop), items of significance for the town’s history, a Parliament clock made in the town, items relating to famous local people, items relating to the 1st and 2nd World Wars, a collection of local pewter, some musical instruments and a large model of the former market house and prints and paintings of it.  On the first floor are flints, fossils and geological specimens, items about mining and the woollen industry, lace and costumes, old toys and other items relating to childhood, pictures, photographs, prints and posters and a set of drawings of flowers to be found in an Ashburton garden early in the 20th Century.  On the top floor there is a collection of old local agricultural implements with articles relating to rural life, items about he history of the railway in Ashburton, items of militaria and the Paul Endacott collection of North American Indian artefacts.  In the Reading Room on the top floor there are books, posters, documents, deeds, maps, charts and photographs of local interest.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2017

  Licence: CC BY-NC