The Norris Museum

The Norris Museum is the principal museum of Huntingdonshire, housed in a charming early twentieth-century building set within the beautiful garden of The Priory beside the River Great Ouse in the historic market town of St Ives, Cambridgeshire. Established in 1931 following the generous bequest of Herbert Edward Norris, an antiquary and local historian, the museum has served the community of Huntingdonshire for nearly a century, building collections that document the rich and varied heritage of this part of the East of England.

The museum's collections span the full sweep of Huntingdonshire's history, from the fossils and geological deposits of the ancient past through to the present day. The region has been inhabited since the Palaeolithic era, and the museum holds an important collection of prehistoric finds including stone tools, Bronze Age metalwork, and Iron Age objects recovered from the fertile soils and river valleys of Cambridgeshire. The Roman period is particularly well represented, reflecting the importance of the region to the Roman occupation of Britain.

Huntingdonshire has a remarkably rich historical heritage. It was the birthplace of Oliver Cromwell, the Parliamentarian general who became Lord Protector of the Commonwealth following the execution of King Charles I, and the museum holds significant material relating to Cromwell and the Civil War period. The county is also strongly associated with Samuel Pepys, the famous diarist who was born in Huntingdon and educated at the town's grammar school.

The natural history and geology of Huntingdonshire form another major strand of the collections. The Oxford Clay deposits underlying much of the county have yielded remarkable marine reptile fossils, including plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs, and the museum holds a notable palaeontological collection. The fens and rivers of the region support distinctive wildlife, and the natural history collections document this biodiversity with specimens accumulated over many decades.

The lace-making tradition of Huntingdonshire is celebrated in an important collection of bobbins, pillows, and finished lacework that records a once-thriving cottage industry. Alongside this, the museum holds material relating to the brick-making industry, agriculture, domestic life, and the changing landscape of Huntingdonshire across the centuries. The museum underwent significant renovation and expansion in 2018, greatly improving its facilities and gallery spaces.