Manor House Museum has served the local community for decades, providing a valuable insight into the town’s past and educating and entertaining generations of local people.
As Cornerstone enters the next phase, the Museum has an exciting future ahead and faces its own renovation project. Manor House Museum remains temporarily closed during this period.
Kettering’s Museum covers two floors of the historic Manor House, with each room showcasing different aspects of local history, covering everything from Kettering’s Roman origins right through to the town’s recent industrial past in the footwear trade. You will always be surprised by the varied heritage of the local area, and our award-winning exhibitions bring stories from further afield to the museum.
History of the Museum
Kettering’s Manor House has been home to the town’s museum since 1989, but their history goes back much further.
Occupying land mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, the Manor House is one of the oldest buildings in the town, with elements of the existing building dating back almost 500 years. Over the centuries, there have been several versions of the “noble hall faced with stone”, first recorded in the 13th century and home to Abbots from nearby Peterborough monastery. A private home for wealthy local families for many years, it was later used by Kettering Library as a Reading Room and was even a dentist at one point. Today though, the Manor House is a Grade II listed building and home to Kettering’s Museum.
"With the collection growing and interest in local history soaring, the Museum needed a much larger home."
Beginning in 1903 after Roman pottery was unearthed in the town, the Museum at first occupied a single room inside Kettering Library. Initially containing local archaeological finds from a newly discovered Anglo-Saxon cemetery, it grew over the following century to include everything from Roman jewellery and pottery, artefacts from the local boot and shoe industry, one of the area’s very first cars, and even a mummified cat used to scare away evil spirits.
With the collection growing and interest in local history soaring, the Museum needed a much larger home. After moving to nearby West Street, where it was known as Westfield Museum, the Museum finally called the Manor House its home in 1989 after extensive renovation work of the historic building.
Today
As well as showcasing the town’s extensive collection of historical artefacts, the Manor House Museum hosts award-winning exhibitions that have covered everything from the 75th anniversary of VE Day, to a fascinating exploration of Kettering’s musical past, and even an exhibition on the history of witchcraft in the region.
"Items on display included a 1500-year-old gold necklace"
Most recently, the museum received a grant from Art Fund and the Weston Loans Programme which saw some modernisation of the temporary display areas, enabling world-class items to be brought to Kettering, on loan from the British Museum. The result was “Local Treasures”, the most successful exhibition at the museum in recent times. Items on display included a 1500-year-old gold necklace and other exciting Roman and Anglo-Saxon jewellery, originally discovered in Northamptonshire and returning to Kettering from London for the first time.