Venue

Castle Donington Museum Trust was founded in 1994 to provide and maintain a Local History Museum, reflecting the long and interesting history of this community overlooking the River Trent, which brought, in their turn, Saxons, Romans, Vikings and Normans to the heart of England.

In 2001 we staged our first exhibition in the Stone House, a grade two listed building and each year we mount a new exhibition, illustrating some aspect of the life of Castle Donington and its inhabitants over the centuries.

The most complete surviving Cistercian monastery in southern England, with almost all the walls of its 13th-century church still standing, along with many monastic buildings. After the Dissolution, the buildings were converted into the mansion house of Sir William Paulet. Situated in Royal Victoria Country Park, even in ruins, the abbey continued to be influential, inspiring Romantic writers and poets.

The Shipley Art Gallery is the North East’s leading gallery of craft and design. The Shipley houses one of the most important collections of contemporary British craft, along with fine collections of design and paintings.

The Designs for Life gallery provides a stimulating learning environment in which themes including form and function, materials and manufacturing, pattern, chairs and lighting can be explored in an interactive way.

Hidden in the quiet back streets of Chelsea is the home of Thomas and Jane Carlyle.

A twist of fate turned Carlyle into a star of the 19th-century literary world. Suddenly this was the place to be.                                                      

When you pull the bell to enter you will follow in the footsteps of Dickens, Ruskin, Tennyson and many more.

William Makepeace Thackeray said: 'Tom Carlyle lives in perfect dignity in a house in Chelsea with a snuffy Scotch maid to open the door and best company in England ringing at it!'