Tavistock Museum finally opened its doors for the new summer season, after a delay due to dry rot and rain leaks.

Thanks to the hard work of a dedicated army of volunteers and generous professionals, the museum has reopened with a special ceremony to thank everyone.

The work to replace areas of wood rot and make the museum watertight continues but the museum is able to reopen with better accessibility and more historic items on display.

Lesley Holliday, museum manager, said: “I’m delighted to reopen the museum which had a delayed opening for our 2026 season with challenges with water ingress and dry rot putting the opening date back by a few weeks.

“However, work is ongoing to address the issues, but the museum's dedicated team of volunteers have pulled out all the stops to get the museum open.

“Numerous grants have helped the museum to improve on accessibility, supported display care and conservation work on items from our collection, and allowed the display of previously unseen items for the 2026 season.”

Museum launch guests who contributed to the museum’s displays and maintenance included London wartime evacuee Ken Bell whose story was told, Chris Fenner, from Dartprint, whose father donated a black mourning dress; Pauline Richardson, who donated her mother's wartime brocade wedding dress, and Linda Medland, who donated family fashion photos.

Lesley added:"It’s always special when you have real people and real-life stories adding context to our exhibitions and displays. This enriches both the history and the interpretation.

“These good people are our stakeholders and they have been given the opportunity to add a little 'seasoning' to the museum. And also to say ‘I have contributed to that.’

“In some ways, a little piece of them has become enshrined within this small but perfectly formed museum; they have become woven into the tapestry of Tavistock's history."

Other contributors at the reopening included Little Bird Creative, for audio-visual subtitles; Andy and Matt from Tavistock Town Council (TTC) for fighting water leaks, damp and dry rot; Tavistock Town Council for opening another ground floor area; Dan Massey for his AI images and heritage consultant Andrew Thompson for his brief on The Trendle prehistoric hill fort.

Also contibuting were Bev and Jeff Moody (theatre company Tavistock Edge), who staged a walking production in the museum last winter; Brandon Hulcoop (All Things Dotty), created an audio tour, tactile images and Braille room guides; and Sam Morcumb (BuildX), for graphics for the ‘A Stitch In Time’ information panels.

The museum received grants from Tavistock Town Council's community fund, SW Federation of Museums' Kathy Callow Legacy Fund and the Rural England Prosperity Fund –Community Resilience Grant, managed by West Devon Borough Council. Additional fundraising from museum volunteer Shona Dickenson's wreath-making event and Tavistock Edge Players has allowed for display improvements.

As well as a stairlift and audio/visual upgrades grants also funded conservation work on clothing textiles, silk diamante shoes and a first-edition book of Rachel Evans: Home Scenes, Tavistock's first tourist guide book.

Other new attractions include a children’s an interactive game board, ‘Time to Get Dressed’, on the history of Tavistock through costume, created by a museum volunteer.