About
Bucks County Museum (formally Buckinghamshire County Museum) is one of the oldest museums in the South East of England, founded in 1862 and housed in a handsome Grade II* listed complex in the historic heart of Aylesbury's Church Street. The museum tells the story of Buckinghamshire through its archaeology, natural history, decorative arts, local crafts, and social history collections, drawing on over 160 years of accumulation to present a comprehensive account of one of England's most varied and historically rich counties.
The museum's archaeological collections are among its greatest strengths, with significant prehistoric and Roman finds from across Buckinghamshire, including material from major excavations in the county. Aylesbury itself was an important market town in the medieval and post-medieval periods, and the surrounding Vale of Aylesbury has produced substantial archaeological evidence from every period from the Palaeolithic onwards. The museum's Roman collections reflect the important network of Roman roads and settlements that traversed Buckinghamshire, connecting London with the Midlands and the West.
Buckinghamshire lace is one of the county's most distinctive cultural traditions, and the museum holds an outstanding collection of bobbin lace, lace-making equipment, and associated material documenting this cottage industry that was once central to the local economy. Hundreds of villages in the county had their own lace-making traditions, with distinctive regional patterns. The museum's lace collection is one of the finest in England and a major draw for textile enthusiasts and researchers.
Among the museum's most popular attractions is the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery — a hands-on interactive space celebrating the author who lived at Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire for most of his adult life. The gallery provides an immersive, imaginative environment for children inspired by Dahl's stories, making Bucks County Museum one of the leading family destinations in the county.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
📅 Best Times to Visit
Quietest: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Busiest: Saturday, Sunday
💡 Weekday mornings for the main museum; Roald Dahl Gallery busiest during school holidays — book well in advance
Highlights
Roald Dahl Children's Gallery
The Roald Dahl Children's Gallery is the museum's most popular attraction — a hands-on, immersive space for children inspired by the stories of Roald Dahl, who lived at Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire for most of his adult life and wrote his most celebrated books there. The gallery provides an interactive environment where children can explore giant peaches, travel into the BFG's world, and engage with the extraordinary imaginative landscapes of Dahl's fiction.
Dahl is one of the most widely read children's authors of the 20th century, and the gallery connects his stories to the Buckinghamshire landscape that inspired them.
The gallery requires a separate ticket and advance booking — it is extremely popular during school holidays.
Buckinghamshire Lace Collection
One of the finest collections of bobbin lace in England, the museum's Buckinghamshire lace holdings document the cottage lace-making industry that was once one of the county's defining economic activities. For centuries, the villages of Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, and Northamptonshire formed the English lace-making heartland, with distinct regional patterns and techniques.
The collection includes hundreds of pieces of lace in a range of patterns from simple 'bucks point' to complex pictorial pieces, alongside bobbins, pillows, pricking cards, and other lace-making equipment.
The collection traces the industry from its peak in the 17th and 18th centuries through its gradual decline in the face of machine-made lace in the 19th century.
Prehistoric and Roman Archaeology
The museum's archaeological collections are among the most comprehensive in the South East, documenting human activity in Buckinghamshire from the Palaeolithic onwards.
Roman finds are particularly significant: Buckinghamshire lay at the intersection of major Roman routes, and the museum holds important material from villa sites, roadside settlements, and cremation cemeteries across the county. Prehistoric collections include Bronze Age metalwork, Iron Age pottery, and material from several notable earthwork sites.
The archaeological galleries give visitors a strong sense of the deep history of a county that might otherwise seem defined primarily by its later architectural and literary heritage.
Civil War Collections
Aylesbury played a significant role in the English Civil War as a Parliamentarian stronghold in an otherwise divided county. The museum holds material relating to this period of conflict, including weapons, documents, and objects associated with the occupation and defence of Aylesbury and the wider Buckinghamshire theatre of the Civil War.
The town's role as a major Parliamentarian garrison and supply centre, and its proximity to Royalist Oxford, made it strategically important throughout the conflict.
The collections illuminate the local experience of a war that divided communities, families, and loyalties across England.
Collections
Bucks County Museum holds approximately 320,000 objects accumulated since 1862, making it one of the most comprehensive county collections in the South East of England. The collections span prehistoric and Roman archaeology (with significant finds from across Buckinghamshire), medieval and post-medieval material culture, natural history (birds, mammals, geology, botany), fine and decorative arts (paintings, prints, ceramics, silver), local crafts (most notably the internationally significant Buckinghamshire bobbin lace collection), and social history objects from across the county.
The archive and documentary collections include photographs, maps, and records relating to Buckinghamshire's communities and industries.
The Roald Dahl-related collections, while modest in scope, connect the museum to one of Buckinghamshire's most celebrated residents.
Buckinghamshire through Time — Archaeology
Traces the human occupation of Buckinghamshire from the earliest prehistoric periods through the Roman and medieval eras, drawing on the museum's extensive archaeological collections from excavations across the county.
📍 Archaeology gallery
Bucks Lace — A County Tradition
The story of Buckinghamshire bobbin lace, from its origins in the 17th century to its decline in the 19th century, presented through an outstanding collection of lace, equipment, and associated social history material.
📍 Lace gallery
Roald Dahl Children's Gallery
Interactive family gallery inspired by the stories and imagination of Roald Dahl, who lived in Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire. Requires separate ticket and advance booking.
📍 Children's Gallery (separate wing)
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.