There are over 70 display areas showing the museum’s collection of historical objects, artefacts and farm machinery.
Agricultural
You will find the museum has an extensive collection of agricultural objects. This ranges from small hand tools in the Whitehall Barn Annexe, carts and wagons in the Cart Shed and vintage tractors in the Tractor Shed. Outside there are many rare items used solely in the production of local crop specialities, such as potatoes, sugar beet and celery.
Trades
The museum has an unrivalled collection of items covering local trades and occupations. See the Courtyard Buildings for a chemist and a cobbler’s shop, whose contents we transferred in their entirety from Peterborough and Chatteris respectively. Visit the Barn Annexe for a reconstruction of a blacksmith’s forge and a display on the wheelwright’s craft. The Trades Room itself is the place to go for carpenters, thatchers, decorators, vets, and many, many more.
Services
The military and civilian services have been a prominent feature of local life and in the Old Stable Block you can see displays on all of the armed services, including items from the local RAF station, RAF Upwood. The civilian services, co-located with the military, are represented by the police, fire service and railways. And don’t miss the display on the intriguing story of the German spy Josef Jacobs.
Childhood
Whilst you are in the Old Stable Block check out the Victorian schoolroom and an enchanting display of vintage toys, which form part of our Childhood collection. On the same subject, look for school uniforms in the GB Hyde’s shop, photographs in the tea-room, and do visit Darlow’s Farm Cottage for a reconstruction of a child’s bedroom from the 1940s.
Domestic
Darlow’s Farm Cottage and GB Hyde’s shop also house many of the museum’s domestic items, but you will find the largest concentration in the Old Stable Block. Here you will find Victorian life-style tableaux, vintage photographic, and audio equipment, as well as period clothing and accessories. A somewhat different aspect of domestic life is to be found in the Garden Machinery Shed, with the museum’s collection of mowers, rollers and other garden implements.
Local Activities
As might be expected, you will find objects related to the social and recreational activities of people in the Ramsey area distributed throughout the Museum, but highlights include the Ramsey Band instruments and uniforms in the Old Stable Block and the eel traps, fishing paraphernalia and fen skates in the Pump Room. In the Trades Room you will find signs, such as those for The Vine public house and Freeman’s toy shop.
Archaeological
All of our local archaeological finds are displayed in the White Hall Barn, together with information about Ramsey Abbey (which is comprehensively covered by the the Abbey website created by one our volunteers). If you look carefully, you will also find fragments of the Abbey stonework in the walls of some of the museum’s buildings.
