We’re excited to kick off our 2026 season on Saturday 28th March, and we’ve been busy getting the museum ready for you!

This year, our main seasonal exhibition explores a fascinating theme: “Victorian Women – Seen but not Heard?”

Using photographs, costumes and objects from our archive, we take a closer look at what life was really like for Victorian women – how society viewed them, what opportunities they had and how they pushed beyond the limits placed on them. We’re also shining a spotlight on some remarkable local women who achieved wonderful things but didn’t always get the recognition they deserved.

That’s not all. We’re thilled to share some important new additions to our collection. One of the highlights is an early sculpture by Walenty Pytel. Walenty was a refugee from Poland at the end of the Second World War and spent his childhood in Leominster. After attending the art college in Hereford, he went on to create an international reputation as a sculptor in metal.

The sculpture itself has an interesting journey. It was bought locally in the 1960s by a Leominster family, then passed down through generations before being donated to us. Over the years it has suffered some damage, but when we contacted Walenty, he very generously offered to repair it himself. We’re incredibly grateful to both Mary and Walenty Pytel for their kindness.

We’ve also welcomed two beautiful watercolours by Leominster-born artist John Scarlett Davis.

The first painting – a donation – is a wonderfully detailed interior view of the Eglise St Roche in Paris. It captures the movement of a church procession illuminated by soft, shifting beams of light from high windows. One critic described Davis’s work as having a quality “like very delicately painted silk” and this piece certainly fits that description.

The second watercolour, purchased by the museum, offers a very different mood: a lively street scene in Calais, framed by an archway and painted with a looser, sketch-like energy. It may well have been a study for a later, more finished work.

With these new pieces, our museum now holds a major collection of Davis’s art – something we’re truly proud of.

Malcolm Mason (Curator)