York Museums Trust Blog

The refurbishment of the Yorkshire Museum has reached its half-way point with the completion of the dismantling part of the job - with only 136 days to go until opening day on 1 August!

Museum manager Helen Young, who is co-ordinating on-site operations, says the next stage will see the start of plastering, decorating, flooring and electrical work.

Then the really exciting bit begins when the exhibition designers start their work installing the new galleries later in the Spring.

One of the most striking moments of the dismantling process was when a wall was exposed which had held our huge ichthyosaur fossil.

When a stretch of panelling was pulled down the shape of the giant sea monster could be clearly seen on the wall. The fossil had been taken down from the wall some years earlier and is due to go back on display when we re-open in August  (see earlier blog).

In the meantime technician Geoff Hutchinson and his assistant Roger Weal have been carefully bricking up the wall so it can be replastered and redecorated to form part of the new Extinct gallery.

The current exhibition of Yorkshire Museum treasures at the British Museum got a mention in Parliament yesterday.

York’s MP Hugh Bayley encouraged others to get down to the exhibition in London - or even better to travel to York to see the collection of star objects when the Yorkshire Museum re-opens in August.

Here’s how the exchange was reported in Hansard - the daily record of everything said in the Houses of Parliament.

Hugh Bayley: My right hon. Friend was in York last month, and perhaps he knows that, at the British Museum at the moment, there is an exhibition of some of the greatest treasures from Yorkshire, including the Middleham Jewel, the Coppergate Helmet and the Ormside Bowl. Will the Minister encourage members of the public, particularly Londoners, to go to the British Museum to see what makes York so special, perhaps as a taster to encourage them to go north in the summer and visit the real thing in Yorkshire?

The Minister of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Margaret Hodge): I am delighted that the temporary closure of the Yorkshire Museum has made it possible for those jewels in our crown to be exhibited in a room in the British Museum. I encourage everybody to go and see them. The partnership between national and regional museums is hugely important in ensuring that all the country’s wealth of artefacts are enjoyed by many more people. It is this Government who, through a renaissance in the regions, have made that partnership possible. That is why it is enormously important that we continue to fund that programme.

Click here for more information about Treasures from Medieval York, the exhibition at the British Museum which runs until 27 June.