About Us (aims and objects)

From fine art and costume, to natural history and archaeology, Norwich Museums are home to some of the best regional collections in the UK. Every year, over 200,000 people visit our museums to admire the treasures on display. Many of these wonderful objects were purchased by the Friends whose fundraising activities and personal gifts continue to enrich and expand the collections.

As the second oldest museum support group in the country, the Friends of the Norwich Museums is a lively, thriving organisation bringing together people who are passionate abut Norwich's past - and future. The Friends arrange an annual programme of visits and lectures. As part of the Friends membership, Friends are sent details and priority booking for museum events.

We have a lively volunteer group who act as room stewards and guides at Strangers' Hall and a garden group who maintain the garden at Strangers Hall and the Bridewell courtyard. Some Friends volunteer in museum departments undertaking specific tasks at the request of museum staff.

The loyalty and commitment of the Friends has also helped secure major funding from national and regional organisations, such as the Heritage Lottery Fund, the National Arts Collections Fund, the Re:source/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, East Anglia Art Fund and East England Arts.

News Headlines

Friends Purchases and Contributions 2008

Enhancing the Castle Museum's Collection of Sculpture

Marble bust of "Amelia Opie, nee Alderson (1769-1853)" by Pierre-Jean David d'Angers (1788-1856) 1836

Friends' Contribution: £3,000

Total Cost: £12,000

The marble bust of Amelia Opie will not only enhance the museum's collection of Sculpture but also enable it to develop its small collection of portrait busts. Amelia Opie, who was born in Norwich, was a renowned figure in the literary world of the early 19th century, moving between her birthplace and London for most of her life. She wrote novels, short stories, poetry, biographies and even a travelogue, as well as contributing to periodicals. She was fully engaged in the political issues of the day and was revered for her philanthropic works and involvement in the anti-slavery movement. All her life she was a close friend of the Gurneys of Earlham Hall and in 1825 she became a Quaker herself. In Norwich she was closely associated with the artists of the Norwich School through her husband the artist John Opie. In London she moved in high society and intellectual circles, becoming a friend of Mary Wollstonecraft, Sir Walter Scott and Madame de Stael.

David d'Angers was an influential French Romantic portrait sculptor. He studied in Italy where he came into contact with Canova. Among his most important works are the sculptures on the pediment of the Pantheon in Paris. Amelia Opie's bust is a fine example of his work. He first met her on a visit to London and again in Paris, The two became good friends and David asked Amelia to sit for him for a bronze medallion, now in the National Portrait Gallery. They corresponded regularly and at some point he expressed a wish to make a bust of her. Amelia agreed after much wrestling with her vanity and anxieties about how she would be represented. The bust shows her as a handsome woman in her early sixties wearing the characteristic Quaker bonnet she adopted after her conversion.

The bust was originally lent to the museum for an exhibition on the Abolition of Slavery in the Victorian Paintings Gallery, where it will remain. It has the potential to feature in a variety of cultural and educational displays.

A Rolling Programme of Conservation

Works of Art on Paper: Conservation & Access

Friends' Contribution: £5,000 (2008/09)

The Friends have traditionally contributed to the conservation of works on paper in the Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery Collection by £500 annually, in most years directed to individual items recently or newly acquired. They are now undertaking to support a more comprehensive rolling programme of conservation for the 21,500 works on paper, together with 100 bound volumes of prints, watercolours and drawings in the collection, which are available for public consultation in the Fine Art Study Room.

The works on paper include a range of artists who have national status in the history of British and European Art: 102 etchings by Rembrandt, 900 by or attributed to John Sell Cotman, approximately 4,000 drawings by artists of the Norwich School and approximately 5,000 other drawings, including English School watercolours and modern works by Paul Gaugin, Stanley Spencer, Howard Hodgkin and Lucian Freud.

A mounting programme will ensure their longevity, safety and accessibility. A programme of record photography will make it possible to add illustrations to the Modes inventory of these works already on the web, to provide an instantly accessible visual record of the topographical and cultural history of Norwich and Norfolk.

Conservation.'Works of Art on Paper'

Figures in a silversmith's shop from an album of water colours by Charles Catton.

(Christopher Hartop (2007) believes the scene depicts an exterior rather than an interior of a shop. An essay on silversmiths' shops in a volume of conference papers 'Goldsmiths and Bankers', illustrates slope fronted 'showglasses' which apparently were fixed outside silversmiths' shops displaying small wares. This would explain why the owner is lounging in his doorway, looking at the browsers outside the shop (the items on the shelves are inside the window) and the behaviour of the dog!)

The Catton album is full of amusing and closely observed scenes from daily life in Norwich and Norfolk such as a shoe shop scene where the assistant's faces are grimaced with the effort of satisfying their fashionable clients wants.

Shoe shop with man and woman
trying on shoes

A Star Feature

Replica Turkeywork Cushions

Purchased by the Friends: £1,200

The display and interpretation of several key rooms at Strangers' hall, to which the Friends contributed £5,000, have been further enhanced by the creation of a set of 12 replica Turkeywork cushions, part-funded by the Friends, for the Oak Room, Parlour and Lady Paine's Room.

Two original mid 17th century woven Turkeywork cushions, part of a set commissioned by Mayor Barrett and presented to the Corporation for use in Blackfriars' Hall, are the only provenanced Norwich- made 17th textiles in the Norwich museums collections. Little is known of the Turkeywork industry in the City, where, in spite of the survival of only a handful of pieces, it evidently flourished, particularly in the 17th century: its size and importance revealed by a large number of references to it in local inventories of the period.

An additional set was purchased for the Friends to sell to raise further funds.

Archaeological Acquisitions

Medieval Seal Matrices

Friends' Purchase: £312.50

Two medieval copper-alloy seal matrices found by metal-detection in Norfolk stand out as of particular interest in having unusual central visual elements. Normally seals of this period use a variety of standard designs like fleur-de-lys. These two examples demonstrate specific commissions: one depicting a cockerel, a pun on the name of the matrix owner. Both matrices will be available for public consultation in the Shirehall Study Centre.

Medieval Gold & Garnet Annular Brooch

Friends' Contribution: £400

Total Cost: £1,500

Medieval gold brooches with inlaid jewels are very rare discoveries in Norfolk despite the county's wealth of Treasure finds. Most of the medieval jewellery derived from archaeological finds does not relate to the 'high end' of the social scale. The brooch found at Wiveton by a metal-detectorist will be especially useful for displays in the Keep. It will help to illustrate the Castle as royal building, home to the types of people that would have worn brooches such as this. The Friends' contribution allowed further applications for funds to be made to the V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the Headley Treasure Scheme.

Silver Hawking Ring or 'Vervel'

Friends' Purchase: £600

Silver hawking rings or 'vervels', once attached to the leg of a bird of prey as a mark of ownership, are rare finds that illustrate the development of hawking as an aristocratic pastime in the 17th century. Norwich Castle Museum already has two other examples and has the potential to become one of the comprehensive collections nationally. A small silver bell that would also have been attached to the leg of the bird to help its owner locate it, discovered nearby by the same metal- detectorist, has already been purchased. It is intended to place the ring on display in the Keep once redevelopment of the displays commences.

Anglo-Saxon Sceatta Coins

Friends' Purchase : £250

Three Anglo-Saxon sceatta coins, two found at Outwell and another at Upwell by metal detection, have also been purchased.

Collecting Box for Strangers Hall

Friends' Purchase: £465.

Designed by Ian Drake Design for Mayor and Magnates refurbishment

Collecting Cultures

Friends' Commitment: £10,000 over the next five years

Conservation of Paston Treasure Picture

Friends' Contribution: £3,525

When funding for the conservation of this well known and loved picture fell short, the Friends stepped in to enable the process to be finished. The picture forms a centrepiece in the 'Exotic' section of the 'Arts of Living' gallery.

Stoneware vases by Shoji Hamada, Bernard Leach, Lucy Rie and Hans Coper

Friends' Contribution: £1,000

Modern studio pottery purchased in memory of the former Director of the Norfolk Museums Service, Francis Cheetham and now in the 'Arts of Living' gallery.

Set of 11 Absolon Glasses

Friends' Contribution: £680

An exceedingly rare set of glasses by the Great Yarmouth glass decorator, William Absolon.

Council members, offiers and committees

The Friends of the Norwich Museums is a Registered Charity (no 311114) governed by a Constitution and run by a board of Trustees known as the Friends Council. The Council meet three times a year in January, May and September. The day to day business of the Friends is run by the Officers, comprising the Chairman, Vice Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer and Membership Secretary. Council members are invited to sit in on these meetings. An Annual General Meeting is held in April/May at the Castle Museum.

Patron: The Marquis of Cholmondeley
President: Richard Jewson Esq. H.M. Lord Lieutenant for Norfolk
Vice-President: David Mawson Esq. O.B.E.