Wakefield Museums and Castles

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.

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

There are low lighting levels in the Cynthia Kenny exhibition gallery. This is to protect the artworks on display from light over-exposure. There is an additional lighting strip in the display case. This is at waist height, or around face height if you are in a wheelchair or short-statured.

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 tactile 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.

There is also a working clocking-in machine that you can put a timecard into and get it punched. (Please note: this makes a sudden loud noise).

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.

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

We also have weekly Relaxed Opening sessions every Thursday, 4pm to 6:30pm.

We have some child and adult ear defenders available in the Pick and Mix station. You can borrow these to use as you move around the museum.

There are audio elements in parts of the exhibition spaces. In the main gallery, these are touch-activated and play out loud.

There is one audio element in the main gallery which is triggered by someone moving into the space by the Wakefield Prison door. This plays audio of children singing ‘Here we go round the Mulberry Bush’.

In the Front Room, there is a 1940s wireless radio interactive which plays audio from Second World War oral history interviews when the tactile buttons are pressed. The volume of these can be turned up or down.

The Cynthia Kenny exhibition includes a soundscape inspired by the paintings on display. It lasts for around 15 minutes. The soundscape plays on the hour and half past the hour. After it finishes there is around 15 minutes before it starts again. The soundscape never gets overly loud but the volume does differ throughout. At one point a couple of minutes in there is construction drilling and high-pitched noises. There is occasionally the sound of people speaking and general hubbub (but you can’t make out any of the words). There is also traffic noise, buzzing, birds tweeting, cathedral bells ringing and music. The sounds often overlap each other.

There is also a large audio-visual screen in the Cynthia Kenny exhibition. This will play a video featuring people talking about Cynthia when the raised button is pressed. The button is on the bottom left of the outer frame of the screen. The audio plays through headphones, which are attached to the screen. For the first 20 seconds of the video there is ambient music overlaying footage of Cynthia’s paintings. The speaking starts with Mabel’s (Cynthia’s friend) interview. It lasts around 6 minutes. A faint bit of the audio bleeds into the main gallery from the headphones when it is playing.

There is another smaller digital screen in the far corner of the Cynthia Kenny exhibition. This plays a slideshow with no audio. It is not touch-screen and plays automatically.

You may also enjoy the creative audio description guide that accompanies the Cynthia Kenny exhibition. You can access this with one of the two RNIB PenFriend devices, headphones and booklet packs at the entrance to the exhibition. There is also a transcription booklet of the audio description if you would prefer to read it.

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.