Wakefield Museums and Castles

Bring a piece of history into your classroom with our range of loan boxes.

Our loan boxes have been developed in consultation with teachers in the Wakefield district. 

They have been designed to complement and support classroom learning by providing a mix of real museum objects and useful supporting resources.

We are all learners, whatever age we are, and we all have different learning styles. Some of your pupils will prefer to have the facts written down to read and consider. Others will prefer looking, thinking, questioning, and discussing out loud. Whatever their learning styles, providing your pupils with the opportunity to handle real objects from the past will ignite a spark of wonder, awe and excitement!

Using our loan boxes will provide your pupils with access to museum objects that the public ordinarily do not get to see or touch. Direct interaction with objects that people in their own locality once made, used, bought and treasured can provide a powerful link to local heritage.

Before the start of each loan, classroom teachers will attend a preliminary meeting either in school or online with a member of the Museums Learning Team. You can ask questions about the objects and seek advice on how best to incorporate them into your lesson planning.

Our flight case sized loan boxes each contain five or more museum objects chosen to:

• assist with pupils’ enquiry and reasoning skills
• prompt questioning and thinking
• provide a tangible connection to the past
• invite investigation and exploration of a topic or theme
• provide opportunities for cross-curricular learning and topical activities

Each loan box is also accompanied by:

• teachers’ notes written by learning professionals, including object information and suggestions for using the loaned objects to support your lessons
• handling guidelines and instructions
• additional ideas for topic expansion and cross-curricular activities
• links to online resources

We have the following loan boxes available for the 2025-26 academic year:

• Toys and Materials (2 boxes)
• The Victorian Home (1 box)
• Victorian Childhood (1 box)
• Life in Lagentium: Roman Castleford (2 boxes)
• The Home Front: World War Two (1 box)
• A Soldier's Life: World War One and World War Two (1 box)
• Beside the Sea (1 box)
• Nurses from History (1 box)
• D.I.Y. Exhibition: Environmentalism (4 boxes)

You can find out more about the contents of each of these loan boxes in our Loan Box Programme:

• 2025-26 Loan Box Programme (PDF)
• 2025-26 Loan Box Programme (accessible Word doc)

Loan boxes are lent out on a half termly basis at a charge of £80 each. Schools will be invoiced prior to the start of the loan.

An additional charge will be applied for any lost, damaged, or broken objects, to an amount of £20 per object. You must inform us of any loss, damage, or breakages immediately and complete a report form, sending it to us before the return of the loan box.