Establishment

When her father, Tom Frank Coles, died in 1953, Hilda Coles inherited the ironmonger’s business. It had been his wish that the building, known as the Priest’s House, become a museum. Seven years later, Hilda decided to close the shop and make his wish come true.

Hilda worked with the Wimborne Historical Society to create galleries in three rooms on the ground floor of the building. The museum opened on 31 July 1962. Hilda wanted it to be “a centre of education and culture… and appealing to children as well as adults”. This was an unusually advanced view for the early 1960s.

Some displays were based on objects that had belonged to a local doctor, Sir Ernest Kaye Le Fleming. He had given his collections to the Dorset County Museum, asking for them to be returned to Wimborne when the time was right.

Hilda ran the museum for 25 years. She worked with volunteers and had support from the local community. When she died in 1987, the house and garden were left to the Governors of Wimborne Minster, a local charitable trust. Hilda’s wish was that the building should become a museum for the town and district. She provided an endowment income.

Refurbishment and restoration

1990s

The Priest’s House Museum Trust restored the building with the help of the Governors of Wimborne Minster and East Dorset District Council. There were now 10 exhibition rooms. The Information Centre was moved into the south wing of the building.

Between 1991 and 1995, successive curators created a series of permanent displays. Some reflected the history of the building and its inhabitants; others showed domestic and shop settings from different centuries.

2012 – 2014

The museum expanded its facilities. We added the Garden Room, a meeting room, storage facilities for the collections and the Tea Room.

In 2014, the Trust took over the management of the Information Centre, keeping the vital service for the local community.

2020

We restored and renovated the Grade II* historic town house, thanks to a large grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Today, the Museum of East Dorset shares the histories and objects of towns and rural villages across East Dorset.

To find out more, click here to visit the Refurbishment page

The collections

The award-winning Museum of East Dorset holds social and local history materials dating from the 1700s through to the 2000s. Many of the 35,000 objects relate to the domestic life, childhood, trades and agriculture of the local area.

The collections include rare archaeological artefacts, some of national significance.

Here are just a few highlights you can discover at the museum:

• Objects from the Romano-British villa at Tarrant Hinton, including one of only two Roman force pumps known in Britain
• An Iron Age skeleton which is the earliest known case of TB in Britain
• Locally produced pottery, dating from the medieval period to 1952. This includes our Verwood pottery collection – one of the most complete in existence
• 350 Late Georgian and Mid-Victorian Valentine cards dating from 1792 to 1872. These were unsold stock from William Low, who ran a stationer’s shop on the museum site. The cards are both traditional romantic Valentines and ‘Vinegar Valentines’ (rude cards that were sent anonymously to people you did not like!)
• Unsold shop stock, furnishings, and paperwork from T.G. Coles & Son ironmonger’s shop. The shop was started by Hilda Coles’ grandfather in the museum building
• Agriculture and country crafts, showing how life in rural East Dorset changed in the 1800s and 1900s
• There are many thousands of images of Wimborne Minster and the surrounding villages. dating from the 1850s onwards. They include people, buildings, street scenes, working life, family life and local celebrations.
• Clothes and accessories dating from the early 1800s to more modern times. The museum has a ‘time capsule’ of unsold stock from local clothier Harold Dacombe. He ran a travelling shop in East Dorset from the 1930s to the 1950s
• A delightful toy collection, with items dating from the early 1800s to the present day. These include an early Steiff ‘blank-button’ bear

To find out more, click here to visit the collections page