Our award winning Museum began life in a country barn in the village of Haydon. When the last mine in the Somerset Coalfield closed in 1973 a group of local people wanted to recognise the work of the Somerset miners and their contribution to Britain’s heritage. The result of this foresight is an extensive collection of artefacts from Somerset’s coal mining history.
The Museum, with its collections and purpose built displays, is now housed in the restored Radstock Old Market Hall. With galleries on two floors you can learn about blacksmithing, coal mining, shoe and boot making, printing and local breweries. You can explore our reconstructed coalmine. You can walk along our Victorian street and discover shopping, home life, school life and leisure. We have displays of fossils and local geology, agriculture and local railways. You will be amazed at the array of things to see and do.

Visit us today to find out more about one of the world’s most dangerous jobs and the impact mining had on the communities of the Radstock area and life in Victorian times.

Wet Paint!!

We are doing some painting in and around the reconstructed MINE area. This may mean that some bits of the ground floor will be temporarily inaccessible during your visit. We are sorry if this causes any inconvenience.

Your Visit

You will find a warm welcome at Radstock Museum. The information to help you find the Museum, park your car and enjoy your visit is all linked to this page: Opening Times: Admission Charges and Museum Location.

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What’s On

There is so much going on at Radstock Museum! Take links to find out about:
Our Current Exhibitions: Events: Displays and Collections; Talks and What’s NEW for 2017. Check out the new NOTICE BOARD feature.

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Our Displays and Collections

Our permanent displays cover two floors within the listed building which was once the Radstock Market Hall. They tell you of the life of a Somerset miner and his family and show how the communities of the coalfield were integrated.

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Our Current Exhibition

June 6th until September 2nd.

“Paintings of Local Life and more…..”
by local artist Norman Matthews.

The museum has plundered its extensive historical archives to complement Norman’s paintings with photographs and information about the events portrayed.

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Our Talks programme

Radstock Museum runs two series of TALKS.
Bygone Days talks celebrate both local and national history. Science in Radstock talks are ‘popular science’ talks; an eclectic mixture of current science disciplines and past, present and future technologies.

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Our Events programme

A diary of our up-coming Events and Activities .

It includes things like; children’s half-term and school holiday activities; competitions; films; quizzes; summer Roadshow venues; fossil hunts and our Victorian themed special days.

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Museum Archives and Research

Radstock Museum holds a unique archive of documents and images especially those relating to the social and industrial heritage of the former Somerset Coalfield. Within our digital archive we have over 17,000 photographs and documents available for research.

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The Museum Shop

Radstock Museum Shop sells
Books: Pictures: CDs and DVDs: Souvenirs: Current, Special and Back Issues of the Five Arches History Journal: annual subscriptions to Five Arches History Journal: pocket money gifts and many other items of interest to our visitors.

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Volunteer: SUPPORT US

Time, talent and money. We need all three of these things to ensure the continued success of the Museum. As an organisation we do not receive any funds from local or central government. Our Museum volunteers do it all.

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Five Arches History Journal

Five Arches is the History Journal of the Radstock, Midsomer Norton and District Museum Society. It is published three times a year and contains articles of various sorts. The sort of articles that you might find in Five Arches are:

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School, Educational and Group Visits

We love having children’s groups at the Museum and work hard to give them a good time and a quality educational experience. The Museum is also a great destination for a group or social visit.

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Museum Friends: Museum Society

The Friends of Radstock Museum are our community based fund-raising group.

The Radstock, Midsomer Norton and District Museum Society was founded in 1985 to preserve the Social and Industrial Heritage of the Communities of the whole of the former Somerset Coalfield.

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