About
The Hull and East Riding Museum brings to life the rich archaeological and social history of Hull and its surrounding region, from prehistoric times through Roman occupation to the medieval and modern periods. Housed in a Victorian former Corn Exchange building in Hull's Old Town, the museum features immersive displays that transport visitors through time, including a recreated Iron Age village complete with roundhouse, a Roman gallery with interactive elements, and Victorian street scenes. The museum's collections derive from archaeological excavations across East Yorkshire, local history donations, and natural history specimens, creating a comprehensive picture of human settlement and development in this corner of England.
One of the museum's most significant assets is its extensive collection of Iron Age and Roman artefacts, including finds from the nearby Brough Roman fort and the remarkable Hasholme logboat, a 2,000-year-old Iron Age vessel discovered in excellent condition. The museum excels at making archaeology accessible through hands-on activities, replica objects visitors can touch, and engaging interpretation that explains how archaeologists work and what objects reveal about past lives. The Egyptian gallery, featuring mummies and funerary objects, remains a perennial favourite with visitors of all ages, demonstrating ancient connections that span continents and millennia.
Recent redevelopment has enhanced the museum's ability to tell local stories through improved displays of Hull's industrial heritage, fishing industry, and social history. The Edwardian street recreation allows visitors to step into shops, homes, and public spaces as they would have appeared over a century ago, complete with authentic furnishings and objects. Educational programmes serve thousands of school children annually, with workshops covering everything from prehistoric tool-making to Victorian classroom experiences. The museum's role extends beyond display to active archaeological research, conservation, and community engagement, positioning it as a vital resource for understanding regional identity and heritage. Free admission ensures these stories remain accessible to everyone, continuing the museum's mission of preserving and sharing the fascinating history of Hull and East Yorkshire.
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Highlights
Iron Age Village Recreation
Step back 2,500 years into a reconstructed Iron Age settlement featuring a full-sized roundhouse with authentic furnishings, tools, and household objects based on archaeological evidence from East Yorkshire. Visitors can explore how Iron Age families lived, cooked, and worked, with replica items that can be handled providing tactile understanding of prehistoric life.
The display includes information about Iron Age agriculture, crafts, social structure, and beliefs drawn from archaeological excavations of local settlements.
Audio elements recreate ambient sounds of village life, while atmospheric lighting suggests the smoky interior of a roundhouse lit by hearth fire. This immersive environment, one of the museum's most popular features, makes distant prehistory tangible and relatable, particularly effective for school groups who can participate in Iron Age living history activities.
The reconstruction reflects decades of archaeological research into Iron Age Yorkshire.
The Hasholme Logboat
The Hasholme logboat stands as one of Britain's most remarkable prehistoric finds - a 2,000-year-old Iron Age vessel carved from a single oak tree that survived in waterlogged conditions for two millennia. Discovered in 1984 near Holme-on-Spalding Moor, this 43-foot long boat was carefully excavated and conserved using specialized techniques.
The boat reveals sophisticated woodworking skills and provides insights into Iron Age transport and trade in the region's wetlands and rivers.
Displayed with interpretation explaining its construction, use, and the complex conservation process that saved it, the logboat represents a direct physical connection to ancient inhabitants. The scale and preservation quality make it exceptional, allowing visitors to see tool marks, repairs, and construction details.
Accompanying displays explore Iron Age boatbuilding across Europe, waterlogged archaeology methods, and the landscape that once sustained communities who created such vessels.
Roman Gallery
The Roman gallery showcases material from Petuaria, the Roman town at Brough, along with objects from villas and settlements across East Yorkshire that flourished during four centuries of Roman occupation. Highlights include mosaic fragments, pottery, coins, jewellery, and military equipment that illustrate both Romanization of local populations and continuity of native traditions.
Interactive elements allow visitors to try on replica armour, handle pottery sherds, and explore Roman daily life through reconstructed scenes.
The gallery explains how Roman roads connected the region to empire-wide trade networks, bringing Mediterranean goods to Yorkshire and exporting local products.
Tombstones and inscriptions provide personal stories of soldiers, merchants, and families who lived in Roman Hull and surroundings. The displays demonstrate archaeological methods, showing how experts interpret fragments to reconstruct past lives, making the process of discovery as engaging as the objects themselves.
Egyptian Gallery
The Egyptian gallery transports visitors to ancient Egypt through displays of mummies, coffins, funerary equipment, and everyday objects spanning pharaonic civilization. The collection includes several mummies with detailed interpretation about mummification processes, religious beliefs about afterlife, and modern scientific techniques that reveal information about ancient individuals without disturbing remains.
Canopic jars, shabtis, amulets, and papyri illustrate burial practices and beliefs, while objects from daily life show domestic activities, crafts, and social structures.
The gallery explores how Egyptian collections came to British museums, addressing questions of cultural heritage and museum ethics.
Interactive elements include hieroglyph activities and handling objects, making ancient Egypt accessible to all ages. Though geographically distant from Hull, the Egyptian collection has fascinated generations of visitors and provides educational opportunities to explore ancient civilizations, comparative archaeology, and the global history of collecting practices.