No museums in the Harrogate district will be re-opening their indoor facilities to the public on 4th July, but there will be one new museum experience in Ripon from today (Friday 26th June).

The dates for re-opening of museums in Harrogate, Knaresborough, Ripon and Nidderdale, are to be confirmed - in part because volunteers involved in the day to day running of the facilities need to be available.

However, Ripon Workhouse Museum, run by charity Ripon Museum Trust, will re-open its gardens to the public from today.

The ‘Inside Out Museum Trail' will see the gardens of the former workhouse in Allhallowgate, open on selected days during June and July, with pre-booked timed slots to ensure that visits are spread out through the day so the site does not exceed a safe capacity.

The trail will help visitors discover features of the Workhouse Museum from the outside as well as an opportunity of enjoying the Front Garden, the Master’s Garden and the Victorian Kitchen Garden.

 

The museum buildings will not be open to the public, but a peak inside the windows will give a glimpse of how people lived in the workhouse. Some of the exhibits, photographs of life in the Workhouse and information boards have been moved nearer to the inside of the museum windows, so people can see them from the outside.

Director of Ripon Museum Trust, Helen Thornton, said:

The Prison and Police Museum and The Courthouse Museum which are also run by Ripon Museum Trust, but re-opening dates are yet to be announced.

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A spokesman for Harrogate Borough Council, said that no dates have yet been agreed for the reopening of the Royal Pump Room, Knaresborough Castle and Courthouse  Museum and Mercer Gallery.