Over the last 2 years the Museum in the Park have been working in partnership with The Women’s Art Activation System – artists Sarah Dixon and Sharon Bennett - on the Baby Makers: Making History project. We set out to establish reproductive and birth histories in the Museum collection as a little-recorded but important part of our collective heritage. 

This display brings together museum objects that inspired the project and new stories collected as a part of it. These include artworks created at The WAAS workshops, newly acquired objects relating to Stroud Maternity Unit and creative pieces exploring trauma and miscarriage.

In collaboration with Stroud Against Racism and Stroud Local History Society, funded by the National Heritage Lottery Fund.

Collectors Room, FREE but donations welcome.

1st Rodborough Guides was the first Guide company in Gloucestershire. It was formed in August 1914 by sisters Mildred and Rosie Humpidge, who were keen to aid the war effort. The group is still going strong and this year celebrates its 110th anniversary.

Come and see precious items from 1st Rodborough’s archives, learn about its founders, and find out what it took to be a Guide back then. Could you install a windowpane, lay a carpet and retape a Venetian blind? These are just a few accomplishments expected of Guides wishing to earn their Handywoman badge in 1922!

On display are a selection of items from 1st Rodborough Guides past and present, including a 1920s uniform, a rare Guides camera, and badges from 1918 to the present.

The Space community gallery

FREE, donations welcome

The Women’s Art Activation System (The WAAS) supported by Stroud Against Racism are delighted to present an intergenerational display about the Windrush families and their descendants, a unique aspect of Stroud’s history for you to discover and enjoy. Key contributor Dee Guthrie shares original artworks and creative pieces by herself, her mother and her son.

This display is supported by Museum in the Park and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. It grew out of the Baby Makers: Making History project created by The WAAS and includes birth histories as well as the wider story.

A display of landline phones of all shapes and sizes, from the collection of a local young person with autism.

Come and see their intriguing display of phones from the classic rotary dial, to the retro burger phone to the ‘of-its-time’ Amstrad.

This is the second display from the same exhibitor, who previously shared highlights from their collection of clocks.

The Space community gallery

FREE, donations welcome

How did people get about two hundred years ago? Come and find out in this free exhibition about local turnpikes, toll gates, coaching inns, ancient tracks and footpaths, the people who travelled them and how they carried their goods, also featuring old maps, turnpike riots and complaints, potholes, road accidents, and highway robbery! Presented by local historians from Amberley, Bisley, Chalford, Minchinhampton, Oakridge, Pitchcombe, Randwick, Rodborough, Stinchcombe, Stonehouse, Stroud and Woodchester. Showing in the Museum’s Meeting Room, Gallery Two, this exhibition will be stewarded by volunteers from local history groups. So if you have questions to ask, or stories to share, please come and chat to them.

Open Saturdays & Sundays 11am - 4.30pm

Open Tuesday to Friday 11am to 4.30pm

Admission free, donations welcome, books for sale.

A display of clocks of all sizes and ages, from the collection of a local young person with autism.

Come and see their beautiful display of clocks and the personal story of why they started collecting clocks, learning about them and how to look after them.

This display will run until Sunday 18 August. It will then be followed by a second display from the same exhibitor, of objects from their collection of landlines.

The Space community gallery

FREE, donations welcome

Visit the Museum’s community display area The Space to find out more about Stroud Morris Dancers - the original ladies Morris Dance group formed in Stroud in 1979.

With costume, photos and even details of how to join, we hope this display will be enjoyed by all those with an interest in the world of folk dance and music.

Each year, the pupils of Stroud Valley Community Primary School make self-portraits and each year they are inspired by a new artist in the making of these artworks. This exhibition is a collection of how our wonderful pupils see themselves through the lens of some of history’s most famous artists. From the dotty world of Kusama Yayoi to the assemblage sculptures of Joseph Cornell, the young artists use inks, wire and paper bags to tell the stories of who they are and what matters to them most. This exhibition shows in Gallery Two from 23 May to 4 June, open daily. Admission free, donations welcome.

This display by the Stroudwater Textile Trust takes in connections between the Stroud District and the Royal Family from George III to Elizabeth II.

Featuring photographs and cloth samples from the Textile Trust collections, and a selection of souvenir wares from the collections of the Museum in the Park.

Image shows: Prinknash Tankard celebrating the Coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953 (2011.56/262).

Local community group Stroud Maternity Matters have taken over our temporary display case in the Collectors Room to celebrate our local maternity unit. Many different parents who have benefitted from the services and support of Stroud Maternity unit have loaned objects for the display. Local midwives too have loaned us their knitted creations and medical instruments. The display also features banners and articles relating to protests against the closure of the unit between 1998 and today.

Visit The Space to see a fantastic collection of memorabilia from Stroud Rotary as well as an extensive display about their work.