Torrington Museum

07/06/2026

Incidentally, if you’ve been to visit, would you mind leaving us a review to tell other people about your experience? Here, on Facebook Reviews, Google, Tripadvisor… it all helps.

Thank you ###

Torrington Museum
The museum is open and looking forward to meeting you this year, whether you’re a regular or new visitor: we have new displays and some exciting news about the future!
Firstly, we have some fabulous new Torrington-themed colouring books designed by Aisling Tierney, based on Torrington Castle. They’re perfect for inquisitive kids or mindful adults and packed with beautiful pictures and fascinating historical background to each one. Proceeds go to the Dig The Castle project and the museum, but there’s only a limited supply so get in quickly. They’re £4.50 and worth every penny.
We’ve taken in some fascinating items lately, including an amazing document on vellum, dated 1583: a signed bond between Andrew Upham, Thomas Miller and John Huddell, concerning land in the Church Lane area, and a beautiful silver cup presented to Captain C. Doe by the town to mark his being awarded the Military Cross in the First World War. Our collections tell the stories of Torrington and its people so, if you think you have anything that might be of interest, please email us at [email protected], with photographs and a little background. We can accept donations but can also take items on loan, if you think you might want them back one day. Everything is given the best possible care, and conservation standards are applied rigorously, so you can be sure your item will be well looked after. We’re particularly keen to acquire one-off pieces of Dartington Crystal for a display to commemorate its 60th anniversary for a display next year.
The huge Market House over the Pannier Market is moving ever closer to opening: the paint is on the walls, the ceiling is fixed and the fire doors are now safe. Next steps are to install heating, upgrade the electrics and replace the flooring. Once that’s all sorted, we’ll bring down our textile collection and create a conservation space where you can see how we care for our collections, and get involved yourself if you fancy getting hands-on with our collections and learning new skills. There’ll be new displays, including seasonal ones to reflect important local events such as May Fair, archaeological work at the Castle and anything interesting on the town’s calendar.
Finally, a couple of pleas for help. Firstly, we have a lovely three-fold leaflet to attract visitors. If you have a business or holiday cottage, perhaps you’d be kind enough to take some? Either email us at the address above or pop into the museum at 14 South Street on Thursdays, Fridays or Saturdays between 10 and 3. We’re happy to post them if you can’t get in and have a few handy plastic dispensers if you need one.
Secondly, we’re always on the lookout for new volunteers to join our friendly team. It’s a terrific way to put something back into your local community and you’ll make new friends, meet and greet our visitors and make their time here something really special. You can do as much or as little as you want and, once you’ve done some room guiding, you’ll find all kinds of other interesting things behind the scenes to help with: such as collections conservation, cataloguing, back office/IT, archiving and even a bit of painting and decorating. Just pop in or drop us an email as above. It’s a really good way to add some skills to your CV if you’re job hunting and our opening hours are perfect if you’re looking for something to do between school runs. You don’t need any experience or knowledge of history, just an open mind and friendly personality!
If you haven’t been in to visit us yet, it’s absolutely free to enter and we’re much bigger than you think, not just the little shop front next to Taff’s chip shop, with two floors and nine rooms stuffed to the rafters with fascinating displays about Torrington and its people, from the Bronze Age to the present day, all in a modern setting (no dusty brown wood cases here) and very friendly. Kids and well-behaved parents are welcome, and we’ll do everything possible to make your visit the best it can possibly be. Because we’re completely independent, we rely on the support of you, our lovely community in everything we do: we’re here purely to look after the town’s history for future generations so come and say hello!
Torrington Museum

06/06/2026

New stock coming into the shop now as we develop a bit of a retail offer. You could say we’ve gone a bit niche in an attempt to think of something unique… We’re producing a range of limited edition badges using images from our collection so get them while you can! 50p each!

29/05/2026

How well do you know Torrington? 25 unusual views that you can see every day: can you name them all?

26/05/2026

Looking for something fun this half term?
Try the brand new Tarka Comes To Town Adventure Trail in Great Torrington. Designed to get families exploring the outdoors, the trail takes you around town, across the commons and up Castle Hill. There are beautiful wood carvings to see, and a great story to read on the way around too.
Trail packs are available in local shops for just £4 and include:
🦦 Story trail book
🎨 Crayons
⭐ Stickers
🖍 Colouring pages
🌳 Rubbing paper for the trail
There are two routes, one shorter and one with a steeper finish.
Please note some areas are not suitable for pushchairs or wheelchairs.
Please share and encourage people to come along and see our wonderful town, and enjoy this great new attaction.

25/05/2026

Dear potential retail/equipment suppliers: if your website says 'email for quote' or your catalogue contains no prices, I'm probably moving on. No time for that.

And yes, there are better things to do on a sunny Bank Holiday Monday.

Yours, Hot and Grumpy of Torrington!

23/05/2026

A little something to keep our younger visitors entertained and maybe get you working, too: our 2026 quiz is ready to go!

22/05/2026

We're always pleased to meet our younger visitors: we're not one of those places that tells you to shush and we won't watch you like a hawk. In fact some of our most interesting questions come from the younger end of our age range and it's great to see kids having fun and engaging with history.

We're always looking for new ways to help children have a great visit; in each room there's a box of bits and pieces you can explore, get stuck into and really get up close to real museum objects.

Oh, and if dressing up in Civil War armour and waving a musket or pistol round is your thing, we can definitely help with that... plus you'd be surprised how many adults want to get dressed up, too!

We're open Thursday - Friday - Saturday, 10-3 with last admission at 2:30 and it's completely free to get in.

21/05/2026

We're thinking about expanding our shop (not the one in the picture!) to sell souvenirs, gifts and locally made crafts. But a load of generic, boring stuff you see everywhere you go isn't very interesting and doesn't fit our policy of recycling money into the local community.

So, two questions:

As a buyer:

What do you look for in museum gift shops? This might include budget items (pens, pencils etc) for kids and adults, food (such as jam, chutney, sweets), locally-made clothing, gifts etc, Devon-themed souvenirs and suchlike. We want our offer to be as local and unique as possible so no generic pewter soldiers and suchlike.

As a seller:

What have you got? Do you make food? Knitwear, cool souvenirs? Talk to us; drop a message here or pop in and see us. Bear in mind we're not a big museum with a huge retail area and unlimited budget, but we're definitely open to interesting, uniquely local ideas you can't get elsewhere.

C'mon, Torrington, let's hear from you!

21/05/2026

Did you ever have one of those days? Grr to the world in general and Microsoft in particular!

Still, on the upside we've been ratified as a charity by Facebook. This means we can accept donations on here as well as post... don't worry, we won't be making a constant stream of 'please give' posts.

Well, maybe the odd one: more on that later.