The Norris Museum

The Norris Museum is the museum of Huntingdonshire. It tells the story of this historic county through the ages. Founded in 1931 under the will of local amateur historian Herbert Norris. He had spent his lifetime collecting books manuscripts and objects relating to the history of Huntingdonshire. When he died he left his collections to the town of St Ives where he was born together with almost his whole estate to pay for the Norris Museum to be built. The Museum still stands in its original building set in a picturesque riverside garden. As its founder intended, the Norris Museum collects and displays the history of Huntingdonshire from earliest times to the present day. The collections range from the fossilised bones of the giant reptiles that lived here in the time of the dinosaurs 160 million years ago through remains from the Stone Age and the Roman period up to more recent history such as the local craft of lace making and the local sport of ice skating in the nearby Fens. An art gallery displays local paintings and is also used for special exhibitions.