Barnet Museum

The Barnet & District Local History runs the Barnet Museum at 31 Wood Street, Chipping Barnet. Objects and archives have been collected since 1927 and collection continues to the present day. An 80th anniversary book, Trawling for Treasures,  has recently been published telling the story of the collection and the people involved in the work of the Museum over 80 years. 

The original aim was to collect material relating to the town of Chipping Barnet and the area immediately around it but additional special collections have also grown up. These include a very fine costume collection, an extensive collection of lace and another of domestic items.

The archives are currently being registered and details are being put onto a database. They include material relating to people, places and institutions such as the Barnet Workhouse and the Boys’ Farm Home, Church Farm [a certified industrial school]. We hold an extensive collection of photographs and prints as well as maps and a library of books relating to the area. Our archivist is currently finalising a Hertfordshire Record Society volume on the diary of Benjamin Woodcock, the master of the Barnet Union Workhouse covering the period from 1836 to 1838. We also publish books and special papers of our own.

The Museum is open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thurdays from 2.30 to 4.30 and on Saturdays from 10.30am to 12.30 and from 2.00 to 4pm. Queries relating to the archives should be addressed to Gillian Gear at the Museum.