Hertford Museum

Museum founders, the Andrews brothers, began collecting in the late 19th century and opened the museum in 1903 at their offices in Fore Street. The diversity of the collection illustrates their success in attracting donations from well travelled Hertfordians and local collectors. In 1913 they bought the Bull Plain site which opened to the public as a museum on 26th February 1914. The Grade II listed building which dates from 1610, went under considerable re-development in 2008, following an extraordinary amount of local fundraising as well as a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The Andrews brothers left the Museum as a gift to the Town of Hertford and it became a Charitable Trust in 1948. The Museum obtains its income through charitable activities and donations from local organizations and members of the public . In addition, the Museum receives a grant from Hertford Town Council, covering approximately half of it’s annual expenditure. The Museum cares for in excess of 100,000 objects. Our collections include archaeology, paper ephemera, ethnography, fine art, geology, natural history, photographs, social history and the Hertfordshire Regiment collection. We also hold the Addis company archive, including the largest collection of toothbrushes in the world.