Wootton Bassett Museum

Wootton Bassett Museum sits in the town hall of Royal Wootton Bassett, a market town in Wiltshire. The building itself is a Grade II listed structure, designed in 1690 by Laurence Hyde, 1st Earl of Rochester. Its ground floor once hosted butter and cheese markets, while the upper storey served as a council chamber and courthouse. A "blind house" under the stairs held drunkards until sober, and a hand-worked fire engine was stored nearby. The town’s small electorate and powerful patrons made it a rotten borough before reforms removed its parliamentary rights in the 19th century. The building fell into disrepair by the late 19th century and was saved by Thomas Lansdown’s restoration in 1889. The museum opened in 1972 after Dr Alan Stebbens, then Chairman of Wootton Bassett Historical Society, led its creation in the vacant town hall. It now holds a photographic collection of 19th and 20th-century life in the town, alongside a ducking stool from 1686, geological items, stocks, and a whipping post. A scale model of the town’s railway station as it appeared before its 1965 closure is also on display. Visitors find the museum’s exhibits arranged across the restored town hall’s open ground floor and upper storey. The ducking stool and whipping post recall the town’s judicial past, while the photographic collection offers a visual history of local life. The scale model of the railway station provides a detailed look at a vanished transport link. The building’s original columns and open design remain visible, linking past uses to its modern role.