Open Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-4pm.

Wildlife in the Red: Wildflower Meadows

Introducing our new virtual partnership exhibition...

Once collectors’ curiosities, now endangered species

Explore Wildlife in the Red - Wessex Museum's first online exhibition. Visit the Museum when we are open to see the accompanying display in our Long Room.

Wildlife in the Red presents a range of natural history objects and environmental issues. From birds to butterflies, flowers to fish… explorers once scoured the globe to find exotic species to display in museums or private collections.  They tell stories of collectors and early environmentalists, but also of species that have been pushed to the brink of extinction.

Each partner museum tells a specific story, based around their collections. Wiltshire Museum focuses on the Donald Grose Herbarium - two large wooden cabinets containing 9,000 sheets of pressed plants, collected by Donald Grose. We're teaming up with the organisation Plantlife, based in Salisbury, with the aim of raising awareness on wildflower meadows and the dangers these vital habitats are currently facing.

You will be able to see selected sheets from the Herbarium on display in the Museum, alongside more information on Wiltshire's wildflower meadows.

Wessex Museums is a thriving partnership of museums across Dorset and Wiltshire – Dorset Museum, Poole Museum, The Salisbury Museum and Wiltshire Museum.

Spring Activities

Make your own snowdrop card!

Fun and easy way to make a colourful spring card - perfect for Mother's Day!

Download the instructions here.

 

 

 

 

Toadstool Crafts!

Seen lots of fungi on your woodland walks? Use them as inspiration for your next craft sessions with this simple toadstool activity. Remember not to touch any real fungi - then can be deadly poisonous!

 

Download the instructions here.

Spotter Sheets

How many wildflowers can you recognise? Get out and about in Wiltshire this winter and see how many wildflowers you can spot. Be careful not to pick them - some are poisionous!

Download spotter sheets from Plantlife:

March spotter sheet

April spotter sheet

Fungi_ID sheet

Learn about biodiversity with Plantlife!

Get creative and make your own biodiversity journal

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