Dorchester Abbey Museum
You can explore some highlights from our collection online here.
The Museum has displays in the oak-panelled, 16th century Old School Room in the Abbey Guest House and in the Abbey’s Cloister Gallery.
The Museum also works closely with Oxford Archaeology, who have an ongoing dig at the Dorchester allotments where they are excavating evidence of a Roman street. You can find out more about the archaeological dig here.
The Museum
We are usually open from Easter Saturday until the end of September. The Opening Times are as follows:
Saturdays, Sundays & BH Mondays, Wednesday and Thursdays 2pm – 5pm
Group visits will be by appointment only
Our Museum volunteers look forward to seeing you during the season.
If you would like to become a volunteer do come into the Museum when it is open and find out more about what we do.
For further details please contact museum@dorchester-abbey.org.uk
‘The best small museum I have ever visited’
‘A delightful local museum run by volunteers’
The Cloister Gallery
The story of the Abbey: If Stones Could Speak
An acclaimed display of the medieval stonemason’s craft
Open 8.00 am – 6.00 pm (summer) / 8.00 am – dusk (winter)
Admission: FREE
‘Fascinating insights into local history’
8 reasons why you should visit Dorchester Abbey Museum today!
– View our photographic archive of 19th and 20th century Dorchester
– Get your copy of the Midsomer Murders location guide
– See how Dorchester has featured in several episodes
– Wonder at beautifully hand decorated Bronze age pots made 5000 years ago
– Find Medusa! What was she for?
– How do we know that the Roman houses looked like our model?
You can find out more about the archaeological dig here.
– Handle items from our collections
– Dress up as the teacher in cap and gown
– Find out about our founder American Edith Gratia Stedman & see how her fundraising helped the Abbey
– View changing styles in stonemasonry from Saxon to modern
– All in the setting of the cloister walk rebuilt in green oak in 2005
– A shard of old pottery, a worked flint, a silver coin? Bring it in and we can help identify it– Do you have photos, letters or publications from past times in Dorchester? May we have a copy for our archive?
– Did your antecendents live in Dorchester? Why not trace them from our parish records?
– Pocket-money items for kids
– Books on local history and wildlife
– Dorchester souvenirs and cards
