Pontefract Museum

Walking round Pontefract with my uncle the other day was the most intense history lesson about one location I've ever had to endure. His local knowledge is immense. You can imagine what it was like walking around the museum. The Museum itself is in a flamboyant Art Nouveau building with a tiled entrance hall with many original 1904 furnishings.

The collections themselves include finds from Pontefract Castle and St. John's Priory, siege coins from the English Civil War, packaging from the Pontefract liquorice factories, Bagley's glass and a major archive of locally printed material. Most of the collection has strong associations with Pontefract, including the town's mining history.