News

About 4 years ago the museum was contacted by an American author who was working on a book about the lives of sisters, Louise and Ida Cook. In the 1930s the sisters had helped to rescue a large number of Jewish people from Nazi Germany and Austria. The author, Isabel Vincent, knew that Louise and […]

A feature of the recent Heritage weekend was an exhibition of Alnwick residents who had turned their hand to inventing something useful. One of these was George Wilkin, who was working as a plumber in Alnwick in the mid-1800’s. This date is extremely relevant, as the great Alnwick cholera outbreak took place in 1849, taking

“I moved up to Alnwick in November 2019, but had visited the museum earlier in July.  I was so impressed that I became a Friend and volunteer, and within a few months a Trustee and the Company Secretary.  The team at Bailiffgate never cease to amaze me. Their enthusiasm, passion, camaraderie and friendliness makes volunteering

It still feels like a bit of a treat to be able to stand up and speak in front of a live audience so I’m really looking forward to my upcoming talk at St James Centre for Bailiffgate Museum & Gallery. When my book Seaside 100 was published back in Spring 2020 the first Covid

I suspect all of us have a tale of when things went disastrously wrong, either when we were a child being taken on a family holiday or as the adult doing the taking. The sort of thing that was far from funny at the time, but in hindsight is hilarious. The 2022 major summer exhibition

Yesterday Bailiffgate Museum & Gallery was named winner of the Family Friendly Museum Award 2021 in an online ceremony hosted by art dealer and broadcaster, Philip Mould (BBC’s Fake or Fortune?) pictured above. Run by charity Kids in Museums, the national award is awarded annually to one museum, gallery, historic home or heritage site in

A hugely popular running feature of Bailiffgate with children is our “Hunt the Mouse” competition. It gets them wandering around all 3 floors looking for the elusive mice, and hopefully viewing all sorts of interesting exhibits in the process. We run mouse hunts all year, but in the summer we love to tailor one especially

On Sunday 8th August a unique scene will greet visitors to Alnwick Market Place – a Viking Village with authentically costumed Norse Vikings in their tents demonstrating Viking Crafts.  Bailiffgate has teamed up with the new leaseholders of the market (Market Place Management Ltd) to organise a special Sunday market with a wide range of

The reaction to the current Viking exhibition has been excellent.  News about changes to Covid restrictions from 19th July will enable us to enhance what we offer without compromising the wellbeing and safety of our visitors and volunteers.  There are two very popular activities that were originally planned as part of the exhibition that we are

An unusual sight greeted early risers last Monday – a Viking invasion at Alnmouth.  Raiders coming in from the sea along the Aln estuary looking for easy pickings or perhaps looking for trade.  All part of the celebration for Bailiffgate’s big summer exhibition, ‘Vikings: Fact and Fiction’. Over 1200 years since the Vikings attacked the