Destination for popular Doncaster military museum’s collection revealed

Most of Doncaster’s Ashworth Barracks military museum collection will transfer to the National Emergency Services Museum (NESM) later this year.
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Around 65 per cent of the collection will switch to a specially created site at the NESM in Sheffield city centre.

Bosses plan to create a simulated trench within the West Bar museum, housing items from World War One, including guns, shells and equipment, and hope to maintain the hands-on contact with the items that was a feature of Ashworth Barracks.

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Around 35 per cent of the collection will switch to The Don War Memorial Museum and Veterans Hub, in Stockton on Tees.

Victoria Cross Trust staff pictured with a small selection of items at Doncaster's VC Museum when it first opened.Victoria Cross Trust staff pictured with a small selection of items at Doncaster's VC Museum when it first opened.
Victoria Cross Trust staff pictured with a small selection of items at Doncaster's VC Museum when it first opened.

The collection will still belong to the Doncaster-based Victoria Cross Trust, which must close its Ashworth Barracks Museum, Balby, on April 19.

NESM offered a home for most of the remaining collection, which may otherwise have been sold or split up.

It will create a new gallery to house the collection within a World War One zone in a forthcoming exhibition about the history of the fire service. The new space, due to open late 2020, will be designed in collaboration with the VC Trust and will include exhibits currently in Doncaster such as recreated trenches.

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The museum is currently working with the VC Trust to set up a partnership to work together on events and outreach activities.

The National Emergency Services Museum, West Bar, Sheffield.The National Emergency Services Museum, West Bar, Sheffield.
The National Emergency Services Museum, West Bar, Sheffield.

Matthew Wakefield, chief executive of NESM, said: “We’re pleased to have been able to take this important collection into our care and offer it a new permanent home that means the majority of these objects and displays can stay in South Yorkshire.

“As part of the redevelopment of our fire service gallery we will be able to tell the story of these remarkable VC recipients in the wider context of the development of the emergency services at war and during peace time. It will be a great addition to our museum.

Guy Aston, trustee from the VC Trust, said: “The museum will take on the long-term care of our collection on our behalf and allow us to concentrate on our main mission which is to restore, clean and maintain the graves of VC recipients and educate people about the history of the VC.”