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Historic rooms at Abington

Join our History Curator on an audio tour exploring the significance of the Oak Room panels.

 

Abington Park Museum is set in a beautiful Tudor building and there are two key rooms that tell us about the early history and story of the building. The rooms can be viewed during opening hours but if you are planning a special visit do check for events or weddings by contacting us.

Themes

The Great Hall

Built by the Bernard family the Great Hall is the oldest part of the current building. It has a stunning medieval style hammerbeam roof dating 1496-1508. The roof beams spring from carved angels holding shields which were probably painted with family heraldry at some point. Used by the family for eating, meeting people, and most other day time activity, the hall would have been the centre of life at Abington Manor. The fireplace was added after 1700. The superb painted glass showing heraldic shields comes from a nearby Manor House at Great Billing and was added after 1800.

Key objects on display in the Great Hall

The Oak Room

No visit to the museum is complete without seeing the Oak Room. Built by William Thursby as part of an extension in the 1670s, its name refers to the outstanding collection of Tudor oak panels that cover each wall of the room. The panels, of which the earliest date from between 1485 and 1508 were originally made for elsewhere in the building and were carefully moved to their current location when William extended the building. Today a touch screen interactive allows you to discover the meaning behind the carvings. They focus on Tudor entertainment, hunting, religion and heraldry. It also explores the Labours of the Months which depict twelve scenes of rural activities that took place over the months of the year.

Take an online tour of the panels

We want to be open and accessible to all visitors to ensure the widest number of people can enjoy our buildings, collections, exhibitions and events.

Accessing the galleries