Wakefield Museums and Castles

Pontefract Museum is in its own dedicated building. There is level access into the building and throughout.

The main entrance is through a pair of non-automatic doors. There is a bell by the main entrance on the right-hand side if you need help opening the doors.

Pontefract Museum is level access throughout. The foyer floor is from 1904 and made of small smooth mosaic tiles. The main gallery floors are made out of parquet flooring (smooth wooden tiles).

There is an initial entrance foyer to the museum. The main gallery is through a set of double doors on your left. These are a little heavy. There will be a member of staff in the welcome space to help you open the doors if you need it.

You can reach the temporary exhibition gallery from two places. One is the single door at the back of the main gallery. The second is directly from the foyer.

If you turn right from the foyer and go down the corridor, you will find the accessible toilet on your left and the Reference Room on your right. At the end of the corridor is the Glass Room. The doors to the Reference Room and the Glass Room are usually kept propped open.

Most of our Visitor Experience Assistants have attended Visual Impairment Training and Sighted Guided Training. All of our staff will be happy to help you get the most from your visit.

We have a braille transcription of the Oh yes it is! pantomime exhibition, and braille labels on the exhibition's dressing-up costumes.

We have an audio description guide for the main gallery, and a separate one for the Oh yes it is! temporary exhibition. The audio descriptions are accessed using one of our PenFriend devices. You tap the coloured stickers in a handheld booklet. The PenFriend then reads the description aloud. You can also plug headphones into the PenFriend device. You can use our headphones or bring your own.

The audio description guide describes and provides more information about a range of star objects on display. It also guides you around the main gallery space.

Ask our friendly Visitor Experience Assistants at the entrance for a PenFriend audio description guide. They can show you how to use it if you need help.

There are lots of hands-on elements in Pontefract Museum.

In the main gallery space there is a mini puppet theatre, hand puppets and story books.

There is a dressing up box near the Civil Wars display.

There is a raised impression of a Civil War coin from the Ackworth Hoard that you can touch and make a rubbing of.

There is a rocking horse that you can touch and ride if you are able.

There is also a toy market stall.

In the Oh yes it is! temporary exhibition, there are pantomime themed dressing up costumes in a box. These have braille tags on to help you pick the right costume for you.

Some of our exhibition spaces have low light levels to protect the delicate objects on display. 

There are audio elements in parts of the exhibition spaces. 

Main gallery: There is a film about the Hermitage in the medieval display. There is a screen with 5 short films in the ‘No place like home’ section. 

Glass room: There is an AV screen with 3 films. All of these films are operated by push buttons. There are no headphones and audio plays out into the gallery.

Oh yes it is! exhibition: There is a small AV screen in the foyer window playing archive clips from past pantomime performances. This is touchscreen. There are headphones. As the footage is old, the audio quality is sometimes lower than usual. The pantomime song is operated by a large yellow button near the small AV screen. There is a brief pause then the audio plays out into the gallery. The song will play twice. 

The fire alarm at Pontefract Museum is tested at 10:30am on Tuesdays.