About Us

Ripon Museum Trust (no. 512913) was formed in 1983 by a small group of volunteers and now, substantially larger, we would describe ourselves as a medium-sized voluntary organisation with full-time support from two paid staff: A Museums Manager and a Learning & Access Officer.

We currently have around 140 volunteers between 16 and 90yrs (including the board of Trustees) and they fulfill a variety of roles which range from helping with education visits to gardening, cataloguing the collections to keeping our accounts, repairing brickwork to researching the stories behind the buildings.

In short, Ripon Museum Trust would be unable to exist, function and progress without volunteers.

We do not receive any regular government funding (although North Yorkshire County Council and Harrogate Borough Council are very supportive of us). We charge an entrance fee to the three museums and every penny goes towards the upkeep and running of the buildings and garden.

We are delighted to have won several awards in the last few years including Museum Accreditation for all three museums, an Investing In Volunteers Award, A Sandford Award for Heritage Education and an Environmental Award for the Garden.