Museum launches new programme

It features a series of hands on workshops, fascinating new displays, fun filled half term activities and an ambitious arts project which will involve 50 volunteers.

Science can reveal intriguing facts about how people lived their lives in the past, from what they ate to what jobs they did as well as giving an insight into how they died.

This February Ripon’s Workhouse Museum hosts two short hands on talks/workshops by leading scientific experts in this field.

Rebecca Gowland, Senior Lecturer in Bioarchaeology at Durham University, will be revealing more about how skeletal remains from Fewston in North Yorkshire tell of the hardships of past life on Saturday February 18, 2-3.30pm.

And visitors can find out what forensic science techniques, commonly associated with crime scene investigations, can also say about historic lifestyles with Tim Thompson, Professor of Forensic Anthropology, from Teesside University, on Saturday February 25, 2-3.30pm.

These two sessions are aimed at adults/over 16’s and cost £5. Booking in advance is advised.

Over half term at the Workhouse Museum there are drop in ‘Apples and Arsenic’ family activities planned.

Each day, from Monday 20 to Friday 24 February 11am-3pm, young visitors can have a go at mixing up cures, baking bread and even making smelling salts.

Dr Punch and Nurse Judy will be on hand for some laughing medicine at noon and 2pm daily. This is also a chance to take a closer look the new Urchins, Sprogs and Guttersnipes exhibition, telling the story of children in the Workhouse.

This year will see the opening of the original Workhouse Kitchen and Dining Hall, as part of the Workhouse Museum’s expansion plans.

To mark this contemporary artist Pippa Hale, is creating artwork which explores the experience of a Victorian Workhouse meal.

And 50 volunteers will be preparing, cooking and eating a typical Victorian Workhouse meal during a day long performance. Filming of this takes place on Friday March 24.