About
Melton Carnegie Museum celebrates the unique heritage of Melton Mowbray, a historic market town in north Leicestershire that has earned the proud title of the 'Rural Capital of Food'. This is a place where centuries of tradition have produced two of England's most celebrated culinary products — the Melton Mowbray pork pie and Stilton cheese — and where the rich agricultural landscape of the Vale of Belvoir and Leicestershire Wolds has sustained communities of farmers, tradespeople, and huntsmen for generations.
The museum is housed in a former Carnegie library building — one of the many public libraries funded across Britain by the Scottish-American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in the early twentieth century — and its handsome Edwardian architecture provides a fitting home for collections that span medieval history to the present day. The building itself is part of Melton Mowbray's story, reflecting the civic ambitions of a prosperous market town at the height of its Victorian and Edwardian prominence.
Food heritage is central to the museum's identity. Melton Mowbray pork pies have been made in the town since at least the Tudor period, originally as portable provisions for fox hunters and their followers who descended on the town in enormous numbers during the winter hunting season. The distinctive hand-raised pastry, uncured pork, and characteristic bow shape of the authentic Melton Mowbray pork pie now enjoy Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status. The museum explores the development of the pork pie trade, the Victorian bakeries that made it famous, and the legal battles to protect its identity. Stilton cheese, despite its name, also has deep roots in the Melton area — the town's connections to this great British blue cheese are explored through display and artefact.
Fox hunting gives the museum another of its defining themes. Melton Mowbray was the undisputed fox-hunting capital of England throughout the nineteenth century, when aristocrats, military officers, and London society would travel up to Leicestershire for the winter season to ride with the Quorn, Belvoir, and Cottesmore hunts — three of the most famous and fashionable hunts in the world. The social life that grew up around hunting transformed the town, driving demand for fine horses, smart lodgings, and elegant entertainments. The museum documents this extraordinary chapter in English social history with portraits, hunting equipment, photographs, and records of the hunts and their followers.
Agricultural history, medieval heritage, social history, and natural history collections round out a museum that is deeply rooted in its place and passionately committed to telling Melton Mowbray's story with depth, nuance, and genuine affection.
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Highlights
Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Heritage Displays
The museum's pork pie displays are among the most distinctive in any English local museum, celebrating a culinary tradition with roots stretching back to the Tudor period.
The authentic Melton Mowbray pork pie — hand-raised in its characteristic bow shape, made with uncured pork and distinctive seasoning, baked free-standing without a hoop — is now protected by European Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status, safeguarding the name for pies made to traditional methods within a defined local area.
Displays trace the evolution of the pork pie trade, the Victorian bakeries that made it nationally famous, and the enduring skill of the pie-makers who maintain the tradition today.
Fox Hunting Capital: The Hunting Shires Story
Throughout the nineteenth century, Melton Mowbray was the undisputed fox-hunting capital of England — a place where the country's most fashionable and wealthy families gathered each winter to hunt with the Quorn, Belvoir, and Cottesmore hunts, three of the most celebrated packs in the world. The museum's hunting displays include portraits of famous huntsmen, hunting equipment, saddles, bridles, hunt buttons, paintings, and photographs documenting the extraordinary social world that grew up around the sport.
Melton transformed during the hunting season as aristocrats and military men arrived, lodges were let at premium prices, and the town's tradespeople prospered.
Stilton Cheese and Local Dairy Heritage
Despite its name, Stilton cheese has long-standing connections to the Melton Mowbray area, and the museum explores the complex history of this most distinguished of British blue cheeses and its relationship with the rich dairy farming landscape of Leicestershire and the Vale of Belvoir. Displays cover the cheese-making process, the farms and dairies that produced Stilton, and the role of the town's inns in making the cheese famous when coaches stopped at Melton on the Great North Road in the eighteenth century.
The museum contextualises Stilton within the broader dairy heritage of a strongly agricultural county.
Medieval Melton: Origins of a Market Town
Melton Mowbray's origins as a market town date to the medieval period, when it grew as a centre of trade and commerce serving the farming communities of the surrounding vales and wolds. The museum's medieval displays explore the granting of the market charter, the development of the town's distinctive street plan, the importance of the church (the magnificent St Mary's, one of the finest parish churches in Leicestershire, dominates the town centre), and the role of local landowners and religious institutions in shaping the early town.
Archaeological finds from the town and surrounding district add depth to the historical narrative.
Collections
The Rural Capital of Food: Pork Pies, Stilton and Food Heritage
Permanent displays celebrating the food heritage of Melton Mowbray, including the pork pie tradition, Stilton cheese, and the agricultural landscape that sustains them.
The Hunting Shires: Melton and the Fox Hunts
Displays exploring the nineteenth-century fox hunting culture that made Melton Mowbray one of the most famous towns in England among the Victorian aristocracy and gentry.
Melton Through the Ages: Town and Country
Permanent local history galleries tracing Melton Mowbray's development from medieval origins to the present day, including social history, agriculture, and community life.
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.