The Weardale Museum
Hotts, Ireshopeburn, Weardale, Weardale, County Durham, DL13 1HD
The Weardale Museum occupies the old manse of the adjoining High House Methodist Chapel which closed in 2019. The Museum has purchased the Chapel and is in the process of converting the two buildings into a Museum and Heritage Centre. The Chapel is currently closed.
The life and times of Weardale and its people are the focus of the collections with displays on farming, mining and quarrying, railways, emigration and the First World War. Our Victorian kitchen shows what life would have been like for families and you can visit the Wesley room which features the history of Methodism in the Dale and the visits by John Wesley who preached in the Chapel. The Weardale Tapestry depicts the history of the Dale from early times.
A display on the production of the Methodist Tapestries Collection is on show, an ambitious project to create 100 embroidered panels telling the story of Methodism and its connection with the High House Chapel. Visitors can also see finds from the digs at St Botolph's Chapel, Frosterley which include a unique stone head, fragments of painted wall plaster and pieces of a medieval cross. The Museum also has comprehensive family history collections which can be researched on site, our volunteers can help with your research into Weardale ancestors.
Hotts, Ireshopeburn, Weardale, Weardale, County Durham, DL13 1HD
There is no wheelchair access to the upstairs rooms in the Museum where the Tapestry is housed. There is an iPad with information on the collections.
Refreshments can be purchased in St John's Chapel, 1 mile.