The Berkshire Museums Network (BMN) is a non-elective group consisting of some 15 museums located in the present day county of Berkshire. At present there are representatives from local authorities, charitable trusts and independents as well as university and military museums. The BMN meets three times a year in different museums and gives members the opportunity to discuss common issues, network with each other and provide support. Please contact us if you would like to join the BMN.
Click on the district to see a list of museums:
Use the map to find a museum - OR - use the 
Bracknell Forest Heritage Website
www.bfheritage.org.uk/
A website built for the people of Bracknell Forest to share memories and history. You can browse through the history of the area and search through memories and stories. Bracknell Forest does not have a museum building.
Contact: Environment & Leisure, Time Square, Market Street, Bracknell, RG12 1JD
Tel: 01344 351754
Museum of English Rural Life
www.ruralhistory.org
The Museum was founded by the University of Reading in 1951and is dedicated to the spirit of the English countryside and its people. It houses nationally important collections of objects, archives, photographs and books relating to farming and all aspects of country life. The exhibition areas are open to the public and the reserve and archival collections may be consulted by appointment. In 2005, the Museum will be moving to a new site at the University
Location: On Whiteknights, the main University campus in Reading, which is two miles south east of the town
centre on the A327 (Shinfield Rd).
Tel: 0118 3788660
Education Service:
Events:
Museum exhibitions:
Library and archive:
Photographic and film collections:
Reading Museum Service
www.readingmuseum.org.uk
Reading Museum Service offers learning experiences that are fun and suitable for all the family. From the serious student to the youngest child, all levels are catered for. We offer opportunities for both formal and informal learning including the chance to handle real objects.
Location: By rail the station is a two minute walk from the Museum of Reading. By road
from the M4 east take junction 10 and follow the A329M into the town centre. If approaching from the west
take junction 12 and follow the A4 into the town centre. The nearest car parks to the Museum of Reading
are at Reading Station and Garrard Street. There are accessible disabled parking spaces at the front
of the Museum of Reading.
Tel: 0118 939 9800
Education & Loans Service:
Huntley & Palmers Collection:
Complete replica of the Bayeux Tapestry:
Roman Silchester Collection:
Natural History Collection:
Thames Water Collection:
Art Collection:
Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology
www.rdg.ac.uk/Ure
The site contains information about the collections and services offered, including schools services. The Museum is recognised as the fourth largest collection of Greek ceramics in Britain. The collection primarily consists of material from the Greek and Gręco-Roman civilisations of the Mediterranean, most notably Greek and Etruscan ceramics and terracottas. Other artifacts include prehistoric pottery, as well as metal and stone artifacts of Greek and Roman date. There is also an important collection of Egyptian antiquities, ranging from the Pre-dynastic to the Roman period.
Location: The Museum is located on the Whiteknights campus of the University of Reading.
It can be found on the ground floor of the Humanities and Social Sciences Building (room 38).
Tel: 0118 378 6990/6599
Schools Services (primary and secondary):
Study Area, Specialised Library:
Café on second floor:
Picnic Area, Car Parking:
Collection of ancient Greek ceramics:
Collection of Egyptian artefacts:
Thames Valley Police Museum
www.thamesvalley.police.uk
The museum includes information and artefacts relating to the history of Thames Valley Police and its five predecessor forces of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Oxford City and Reading Borough. The museum's collections include items relating to the Great Train Robbery of 1963, uniforms, equipment, medals, photographs and scenes of crime evidence as well as occurence and charge books.
Location: The Museum is situated in the historic White House of Sulhamstead, near Reading,
which is now used as the Force training Centre near Junction 12 of the A4.
Tel: 0118 932 5748
Visits by appointment:
Assistance with reseach:
School visits by appointment:
West Berkshire Museum
www.westberks.gov.uk/tourism/heritage
The sites provide information about the West Berkshire Heritage Service, which comprises Museum and
Archaeology, and their concomitant services and facilities.
The Museum's Collections date from 1843 when a private museum was established in Newbury.
In 1904 the collections were transferred to their present site. Since that date eleven gallery
spaces have been opened to display a selection of the objects being cared for by the Museum.
More than 20 subjects have been 'shoe-horned' into six computerised collections for ease of retrieval:
- Archaeology
- Archive & Ephemera (includes maps)
- Art (pictures, ceramics, jewellery, horology, furniture, etc)
- General (social history, trade & industry, science & technology, rural life, etc)
- Nature (geology, natural history)
- Photography
Location: In the centre of Newbury just off the Market Place and beside the Library.
It is within a five-minute walk of the railway station and the bus station, and four miles from
Junction 13 of the M4.
Tel: (01635) 30511
Fax: (01635) 38535
Copy prints of pictures and objects:
Licence for photography and filming
[by arrangement]:
Disabled access to the ground floor only:
Resources room [by appointment]:
Enquiries (museum collections, archaeological sites and monuments, local history, general):
Education, Children's Club:
Illustrated talks:
Topographical images of West Berkshire (photographs, oils, works of art on paper, ephemera):
Archaeology of West Berkshire from Neolithic to Post Medięval periods:
Coins, tokens, medals and medallions:
Costume, accessories and textiles:
Domestic objects used in towns, villages and hamlets:
Maidenhead Heritage Centre
www.maidenheadheritage.org.uk
The website includes exhibition and events programme, news, a potted history of Maidenhead, the history of the ATA, a picture gallery, details of talks available to clubs and schools, a mail order catalogue and membership application form. Further developments of the website are planned, including a collections page and a greatly enlarged picture gallery.
Location: 90 Moorbridge Road, Maidenhead, Berks SL6 9NZ. Between town and river, 100 yds past Waitrose
Tel: 01628 780555
Disabled Access:
Talks to Schools and Clubs:
Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) Collection:
Local history collection:
Reference library, Image Archive:
6 exhibitions per year:
Heritage Walks:
Royal Berkshire Yeomanry Cavalry Museum
The Berkshire Yeomanry Website
The Berkshire Yeomanry Museum was founded in 1975 and today contains a modest collection of regimental
artefacts covering the roles, arms and uniforms adopted by the regiment since its beginnings in 1794.
The collection also covers the regiment's activities during the Boer War, the First World War, and Second
World War.
The museum is owned and funded by a small charitable trust whose threefold aims are the upholding of the
traditions of the Berkshire Yeomanry, the perpetuating of its deeds, and the preservation of the museum
collection.
Location: The Museum is housed in the TA centre at the junction of Bolton Road and Bolton Avenue in Windsor
Tel: 01753 860600
Meeting rooms:
Kitchen facilities:
Parking and toilets:
Guided tours (by appointment):
Assistance with ancestral research:
Windsor & Royal Borough Museum
(formerly The Royal Borough Museum)
www.rbwm.gov.uk/web/museum_index.htm
Windsor & Royal Borough Museum is the local history collection for the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead. It is housed in a store, with a new display arm in the local studies area at Windsor Library. There are also small display cases around the borough showing a selection of artefacts. Amongst the museum collection's 6000 items are archaeological finds, paintings, prints, drawings, maps, books, dioramas, costume and a wide variety of social history objects, all relating to Windsor, Maidenhead and the surrounding area. The museum store is open by appointment only on Wednesday mornings; Windsor Library is open Monday - Saturday.
Location: Displays at Windsor Library, Bachelors Acre,
Windsor, SL4 1ER
Tel: 01753 743940 for library opening times
Museum store: Tinkers Lane, Windsor
Tel: 01628 796829
Disabled Access and Accessible Lavatory:
Loans Boxes containing Windsor & Royal Borough Museum objects available to schools and groups through Reading Museum Service:
Changing displays in Windsor Library:
Local history enquiries welcome:
Friends' organisation:
Stanley Spencer Gallery, The
www.stanleyspencer.org.uk
The Stanley Spencer Memorial Trust owns a collection of paintings and drawings by Sir Stanley Spencer, one of the foremost British artists of the 20th century. These are exhibited in a former Victorian Chapel in Cookham, Berkshire, the Stanley Spencer Gallery. It is the largest permanently displayed collection of the artist's work. The Gallery is the only one in Britain devoted exclusively to an artist in the village where he was born and spent most of his working life. Details of opening times and current exhibitions can be found on our website.
Location: Kings Hall, High Street, Cookham, Berks
Tel: 01628 471885
Education & Loans Service:
Disabled Access:
Group visits and talks:
REME Museum of Technology
www.rememuseum.org.uk
The main museum displays reflect the development of the Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineer's (REME) trades and training since 1942. The Prince Philip Hall displays 20 specialist vehicles. The Corps technical, documentary and pictorial Archives, is a designated Place of Deposit for the Public Record Office.
Location: Isaac Newton Road, Arborfield Garrison, off Biggs Lane, Arborfield, Berkshire. RG2 9NJt
Tel: 0118 976 3375
Free Car and Coach Parking:
Family events:
Education Service:
Archive Research Service:
Specialist Vehicle Collection:
Small Arms Collection:
Aeronautical Collection:
Electronics Collection:
Uniform, Medals and Memorabilia: