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A Tour of the Museum
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1 - The Cruck House
 Visitors begin their tour in the reconstructed Cruck House,which houses the museum's collection of domestic bygones. Also to be seen are two funeral hatchments belonging to the Zetland family, and an inn sign with a history. |
2 - Leadmining Gallery
 Visitors then move on to the leadmining gallery. This details the industry which flourished in Swaledale and Wensleydale until the end of the 19th century. Among various leadmining artefacts is a 16th century lead smelting hearth. |
3 - Transport Gallery
 Here the centrepiece is a large model of Richmond's Railway Station, seen a hundred years ago. The station was built in 1846 as the railhead for the lead industry. The model was nine years in the making. There is also a feature display about the Richmond Cyclists' Meet. |
4 - The Herriot Set
 This is the vet's surgery set from TV's "All Creatures Great and Small", the series about James Herriot. It has been seen on television all over the world. The display includes animal husbandry tools. |
5 - Chemist's Shop
 This is a reconstruction of Barker's chemist's shop from Catterick Garrison, given to the museum by Mr Barker's family after his death in the Seventies. It includes the dispensary. |
6 - The Wenham Gallery
 The tour ends here with a series of displays covering the history of Richmond and its people from earliest times. A feature is the former village post office from Grinton. There are also two pictures by the Richmond artist, William Sanderson, and the bell from the old Toll Booth which signalled the start of the markets. |
And there's more . . .
 In addition to the main galleries there is the reconstruction of the Victorian grocer's shop in Richmond where the founder of the Fenwick department store empire was born (left). And there are needlework and knitting implements on show, also embroidery. Finally, there is a shop.
We hope you enjoy your visit.
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The Fenwick Story
Say "Fenwick's" and most people think of the Newcastle store which has branches throughout the country, including London and York. But it is little known that the founder of this business empire was born in Richmond and started his working life in his father's shop in Frenchgate.
John James Fenwick was born in 1846, one of a family of eleven. His father was John Fenwick, the son of a Swaledale farmer, who had gone into business as a grocer in Richmond, In the early 1860s the family moved to Middlesbrough, where John James worked in a draper's shop before serving an apprenticeship in that trade in Stockton.
In 1868 he went to work at Moses and Brown's, the drapers in Mosley Street, Newcastle, before moving to Charles Bragg and Co, silk mercers, of Pilgrim Street, where he rose to become manager.
It was in 1882 that "JJ" went into business on his own behalf, transforming a house in the fashionable Northumberland Street into a draper's shop and founding the present-day chain.
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