Member Article

Last chance to visit two Newcastle Museums

Two of Newcastle’s museums are preparing to close their doors for the final time this week. The collections from Newcastle University’s Museum of Antiquities and Shefton Museum of Greek and Etruscan Art and Archaeology are set to transfer to the rejuvenated Hancock Museum building, under the development of the Great North Museum project.

When the museums close their doors at the weekend, staff will begin the massive task of preparing the collections for transfer to their new home.

Included in the collection of the Museum of Antiquities are some 200 stone altars from Hadrian’s Wall, as well as many small and fragile items of flint, pottery and jewellery dating from the Palaeolithic to the Tudors and Stuarts period.

The move to new premises will enable more visitors to enjoy the collections. The £26 million Heritage Lottery-funded Great North Museum project is due to be completed early in 2009.

Lindsay Allason-Jones, Newcastle University’s Director of Archaeological Museums, said: “Of course I have very mixed feelings. The Museum of Antiquities has been the region’s principal museum of Hadrian’s Wall for more than 40 years, and it holds a very special place in many people’s affections. The Shefton Museum has always been something of a hidden gem, but it houses some of best examples of Greek artefacts outside London.

“The Great North Museum project is very exciting, and we badly need the move to new, more suitable, premises to enable us to modernise the way we show our collections, and to open them up to new and wider audiences.”

The Shefton Museum, in the Armstrong Building, Newcastle University, closes for the final time at 4.00 pm on Friday 18 April. The Museum of Antiquities closes at 4.00 pm on Saturday 19 April.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .