Saffron Walden Museum

Saffron Walden Museum is a local museum in Saffron Walden, Essex, England. Established in 1835 by the Saffron Walden Natural History Society, with collections assembled from 1832 by local benefactors including Jabez Gibson and Lord Braybrooke of Audley End, it was built as a purpose-designed museum, making it one of the oldest purpose-built museums in the United Kingdom. It was built to house collections of natural history, antiquities and other objects of local and general interest, a role the museum continues to fulfil. The museum is located on Museum Street within the town of Saffron Walden, set in an enclosed grass meadow near the ruins of the 12-century Walden Castle. Its collections comprise around 175,000 objects and specimens spanning ancient cultures, archaeology, ceramics and glass, costumes and textiles, geology, furniture and woodwork, social and local history, natural history, and world cultures. Highlights of the museum's collection include: Wallace the Lion; the painted coffin of the Egyptian Tayef-herut-nakht; a Roman period mummy from Egypt; a rare late Tudor "rail and rope" bed; a glove traditionally associated with Mary, Queen of Scots; and an 18th-century suit of Japanese samurai armour. The museum also holds significant natural history and ethnographic collections assembled during the nineteenth century, alongside extensive archaeological material and later objects relating to the history of north-west Essex. The museum is operated by Uttlesford District Council in partnership with Saffron Walden Museum Society Ltd, the charitable organisation that owns the building and collections and provides talks and events for its members, and is supported by a team of over 50 volunteers.