Kettering Manor House Museum artefacts moved to storage facility at Chester House Estate near Wellingborough

Boxed artefacts from the Manor House Museum have been relocated to new purpose-built storage facilities at the ARC, based at the Chester House Estate off the A45 near Wellingborough.

Kettering’s museum collection comprises more than 600 archive boxes from various time periods – the ARC already houses 24,000 archive boxes from more than 3,000 sites from across the county and beyond.

Ben Donnelly-Symes, who oversees the archives at the ARC, said: “By moving the collections to the ARC, the Manor House Museum archaeological collections will be far more accessible to the public than ever before.

"Rather than being in an inaccessible warehouse, these collections will be freely accessible to the public and can be viewed on one of our free public tours of the ARC building that we run most weeks or could be accessed for research by booking an appointment. “Over the next several years, we will be re-packing, sorting and cataloguing the collections to modern standards to ensure they are preserved for future generations.

"The collections will be stored in our state-of-the-art facilities and kept at the correct temperature and humidity to ensure their long-term preservation.”

The Manor House Museum has been shut since the Covid pandemic in 2020.

A survey on the Grade II-listed building revealed complex structural problems including a leaking roof, rotting beams and unsafe upper floors. A refurbishment project has been estimated at around £10m with at least 10 per cent of the funding needing to come from North Northants Council (NNC).

Cllr Helen Howell, the council’s deputy leader and executive member for sport, leisure, culture and tourism, said: “Archives like this are vital for ensuring the history of towns are available for generations to come and often have a high number of documents and valuable resources which are perfect for researchers but would not be used in public exhibitions. “This move to state-of-the-art facilities will mean that the collection is preserved and accessible but doesn’t take away from what the museum in the town will offer when it is able to open.

"The collection may now be stored outside the town, but that is all that has changed - they remain part of the Manor House Museum’s collection and will now be even easier for the team to access.”

Curators and volunteers from the ARC have been working behind-the-scenes on the collaborative project.

Some permanent displays still remain intact on the ground floor of the museum including the shoe factory displays, some of which is covered by plastic sheeting.

In July 2024, NNC’s culture, heritage and tourism business plan stated the council would be working in the ‘short term’ to see if minor repairs could enable the museum to open.

Leader of NNC Cllr Jason Smithers added: “As a council, we have a responsibility to preserve our heritage in any way we can, and this move shows teams coming together to ensure that our history is there for the future. “The facilities at the ARC are of the highest quality and residents can be assured that all the material that has been moved from Kettering will be well cared for by the dedicated team.”