Collections

The Museum of Cannock Chase tells the story of the people and places of the area. The collection has grown through donations from local people since we first opened in 1989.

The collection covers four key areas:

• Mining in the Cannock Chase area. We hold a range of mining equipment and related artefacts, as well as some books, documents and images.
• Life on Cannock Chase. There is a varied collection of objects relating to the history of domestic life, trades, military activity and local society in this area. You can see a range of items from vacuum cleaners to medical kit, taxidermy to banners.
• The museum has received some large donations from local collectors and has an interesting collection of historic toys and games used by children from the area.
• Photographs, documents and images. There is an extensive collection of photographs and postcards of the local area, along with some documents such as maps, plans and posters.

Only part of our collection is on display at any one time, so please contact us in advance of your visit if you are interested in a specific artefact.

What we collect

The museum actively collects new objects relating to the key themes above. We welcome offers of items and decide whether to accept the donation based on the following criteria.

• Do we have space for it? Can we look after it? We have to decline any object that we can’t care for properly.
• Is it safe to store in a public building? We do not accept firearms, silver nitrate film or any objects that we feel might be dangerous to staff or visitors.
• Is there a better place to donate? For example, we may refer potential donors to the County Archive or a specialist museum.
• Is it clearly related to the collecting themes and connected to the local area? We can rarely accept items from outside the Cannock Chase area.
• Do we already have an example? Unfortunately, we don’t have space to store duplicates.
• Is it in good condition? We don’t have the resources to undertake conservation work on new acquisitions, except in exceptional circumstances.

Research enquiries

We are always happy to help with research enquiries. Particular strengths include images and information about specific local areas or pits, questions about objects in our care and the general history of the area, mining and toys. Please note that we don’t hold much personal information for family history queries.

 

If you have a research enquiry, please contact us at museumofcannockchase@ihlmail.org with details.