Museums

Increase your understanding of our law and order heritage

Exhibitions

Take time to view the special exhibitions at the Yorkshire Law and Order Museums: -

One Way to Botany Bay - Courthouse Museum

This comprehensive exhibition, which first opened in 2004, has drawn much praise from visitors. Examining penal transportation from the UK to Australia in the 18th and 19th Centuries and highlighting some of those sentenced by the Quarter Sessions Court at Ripon, it has been expanded to include two very different and poignant case histories: -

John Naylor, son of a maltster and brewer, was convicted here in October 1836 for stealing coal, and sentenced to 7 years transportation. When asked why he had committed this second offence, he replied "I wanted to get away from my wife... !". One year later, he arrived in Port Arthur, the penal colony in Van Diemen's Land, on the convict ship Elphinstone.

Ward Swale was a 19 year old farm labourer when he was convicted in January 1848 of stealing goods 'to the value of 2 shillings and 4 pence'. Chained at night and doing hard labour by day at Woolwich Arsenal, convict number 4374 spent 3 years on the prison ship Warrior. Ward eventually arrived in Freemantle in Western Australia in October 1851.

Descendents of both these transportees visited the Courthouse Museum in 2004 and 2005. Family case histories of the sentencing, departure from Ripon, subsequent passage to Australia and details of their life in this 'new land' are included.

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Model Police Vehicle Collection - Prison and Police Museum

A new exhibition featuring a recently acquired, comprehensive collection of model police vehicles covering various makes and types of vehicle including Police Mobile Control Rooms, Panda Cars, Dog Vans and Patrol Cars (Classic Rovers, Triumphs, Vauxhalls, Hillman, Ford Cortinas, Zephyrs, Anglias and Granadas, etc.).

The collection was amassed by the late David Hirst who joined Leeds City Police as Constable 344 on the 14th of November, 1969, after Police Cadet service, and retired as an Inspector from West Yorkshire Police on medical grounds on the 20th of January, 1993.

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Hard Times Gallery - Workhouse Museum

There is a pictorial exhibition in 'The Hard Times Gallery' depicting the harsh conditions of the poor in Victorian Times.

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