Collections showcase

Our museums cover Dorset and Wiltshire, and hold world-class collections spanning archaeology, fine and decorative art, ethnography, social history, costume and textiles. Together we tell different chapters in the fascinating story of Wessex, from prehistoric times to today.

Here are just some of the amazing objects we hold in our museums, explore the Collections Showcase. 

Collections showcase at Salisbury Museum. Ash Mills

Recent additions

Rugged, reliable, and relatively affordable this two-stoke outboard motor was made in Poole.
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Brown and May were agricultural engineers with a large works in Estcourt Street, Devizes. Read more about this 1/10th scale model.
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This patchwork dressing gown was meticulously hand-stitched in the 1940s by Natalia Mary Levett.
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Search the Virtual Collection

Search the database featuring over 250,000 collection items from Wessex Museums’ partners.

Ancient Wessex

Creative Wessex

Wessex People

Enterprising Wessex

Wessex Land and Water

Wessex myth and legend 

Wessex and the wider world

Sawfish are also called carpenter sharks...but they are rays, not sharks!

There’s also a species called a sawshark, but that’s, well, a shark!

What the heck is a lek?

Males great bustards perform spectacular courtship displays, gathering at a ‘lek’ or small display ground to try to impress the females.

Road Runner!

The great bustard has a dignified slow walk but tends to run when disturbed, rather than fly.

Belly Buster!

The hen-bird on display at The Salisbury Museum was one of the last great bustards to be eaten in the town!

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