Wakefield Museums and Castles

We have an Easy Read guide for the main galleries. You can find this in the Pick and Mix station in the Welcome Space. You can take this with you around the galleries.

You can download our visual story for Wakefield Museum before you visit.

You can download a floorplan of the museum.

You can download a sensory map of the main galleries before you visit.

We also have a sensory map of the Cynthia Kenny: a city framed feature exhibition. 

Copies of both sensory maps are available in the Pick and Mix station in the Welcome Space.

There are Makaton signs next to some of our star objects. These can help you to communicate about what is on display.

In the Cynthia Kenny exhibition gallery there are discussion prompts in orange paint palette symbols on the walls. There are also Makaton symbols. These can help you to think and communicate about the paintings in a multisensory way.

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

There are lots of tactile tools and resources available to support your visit in the Pick and Mix station. This is in the Welcome Space when you first enter the Museum.

There are hands-on elements around the galleries. In the Welcome Space, there is a Stone Age hand axe and polished axe head below the display case that you can touch. There is also a quern stone interactive that you can touch.

In the main gallery, the wooden Victorian Wakefield Prison door is on open display. You can touch this.

In the Cynthia Kenny exhibition gallery there is an interactive ‘build your own cityscape’ feature. This includes building blocks and an open frame to create your own scene. There are also sketching tools and clipboards.

Generally, the site is quieter during weekdays (Monday to Friday). It can be louder at weekends and on school holidays.

We do also regularly have school visits attending during the week, which can be excitable and noisy.

Every Thursday in term time, 10:30am to 11:30am, is our Museum Minis toddler sessions. These can be busier and noisier than normal.

The fire alarms in the Wakefield One building are tested every Thursday around 11am. They will sound from one to three times. There will be a tannoy announcement shortly before the alarms are tested.

You can contact us in advance to find out when might be the best time for you to visit.