Foundation Stones

This gallery explores how the Somerset landscape was created during 400 million years of change.

At times it was a tropical sea or a desert or a rain forest. 15,000 years ago it was covered by ice and snow.

When the climate warmed, our human ancestors began to claim the land.

Claiming the Land

Six thousand years ago people began to farm the land.

They stayed in one place for longer and had a far greater impact on their surroundings.

This gallery explores how these changes laid the foundations of modern life.

Making Somerset

Anglo-Saxon settlers from the late 600s onwards defined the borders of Somerset and gave it a name.

This gallery shows how, during the next 1,200 years, it became recognisably the remarkable and distinctive place we have inherited.

Reflecting

This gallery is a beautiful space for reflection and inspiration.

It features the words of Somerset people and visitors to the county over the centuries.

Discovering

Explore how knowledge of Somerset’s landscapes and traditions, and of the world outside the county, grew during the 1800s in a period of rapid discovery.

Going Places

Find out how Somerset was transformed in the years after 1750. Improved roads and new railways ended centuries of rural isolation and encouraged the growth of towns.

Gathering

This gallery explores how Somerset people have always gathered to enjoy a drink, to march in parades or to harvest the crops.

Rebellion!

Find out how Somerset gained a reputation as a rebellious county during the 17th century and what it endured in the Civil War and Monmouth Rebellion.

Somerset Military Museum

Somerset Military Museum tells the story of the regiments connected with the county over more than three hundred years.

The gallery reveals individual stories of bravery and sacrifice set in places as far-ranging as the battlefields of Europe, the jungles of Malaya and the mountains of Afghanistan.