Manor House Museum

Manor House displays and exhibits

The Manor House Museum has displays and exhibits of local history, as well as programs and activities for children and families and a gift shop. Entry to the museum is free.

Displays at the museum

We have a wide range of objects and artworks from our collections on display permanently and temporarily, including archaeology, natural history, prehistoric fossils and the boot and shoe industry

Exhibitions

Roman brooches

Jewellery and accessories are by far the most numerous items in our archaeology collection.  Most of these items came from the Roman period of occupation between AD43 to AD410, although we also have items from the Iron Age before the Romans, and the Saxons after them.

The brooches in our collection come in many different shapes and sizes, but the most common design is that of the bow brooch, also known as 'fibula brooch'. They are known as bow brooches because they are a similar shape to an archer’s bow. 

Roman face pots

This group of pottery pieces would have been the decoration on pottery jars and beakers used by the middle-class Roman. 

Anglo-Saxon cremation urns

In 1903, during foundation work to construct housing on Stamford Road, an urn was revealed. Many items have been recovered from this area including; 80 to 90 urns, 6 skeletons, bronze tweezers, broken combs, molten glass beads, and a small knife. 

The famous long-boss potter

Pottery was an essential part of Anglo-Saxon life, used for storage, transporting, cooking and cremation. The Kettering long-boss potter was working in the local area and is significant because his unique pottery has been found in other locations outside Kettering, including Newton, near Geddington, Barton Seagrave and Garton in Cambridgeshire.

The long-boss name came from the potter’s distinctive decorated bosses: a vertically pinched out or pushed in pattern, a design clearly admired in neighbouring regions.

Last updated 17 July 2024