In 1915 Burton corporation opened a municipal museum and art gallery in a building designed by Henry Beck of Burton on the site of the former police station at the corner of Station Street and Guild Street. The nucleus of the museum was the collection of artefacts belonging to the Burton-upon-Trent Natural History and Archaeological Society. It was augmented in 1921 by an extensive private collection of zoological specimens amassed by the society's president, Philip Mason. In 1923 the corporation was given the natural history collection at Rolleston Hall, and in 1928 it opened an extension at the Guild Street museum to house them. After the museum and art gallery was closed in the late 1970s, some items were transferred to the Bass Museum and others to the museum and art gallery at Derby.
Myself and a freind who lives near Burton had been wondering about this place for ages, but only recently got round to taking a look. Unfortunately it turned out to be very empty, no display cases or museum related tat remained. Everything had been painted white, presumably to try and help smarten it up to rent it out, although that must have been a long time ago going by the chunks of fallen plaster and dust everywhere.
Myself and a freind who lives near Burton had been wondering about this place for ages, but only recently got round to taking a look. Unfortunately it turned out to be very empty, no display cases or museum related tat remained. Everything had been painted white, presumably to try and help smarten it up to rent it out, although that must have been a long time ago going by the chunks of fallen plaster and dust everywhere.
