Flight
Nine thousand birds, from a hummingbird the size of a thumbnail to the albatross that hangs over the stairs.
Every specimen is a moment someone kept still.
Since 1868 Wrenfield has gathered feathers, beetles, fossils, shells and seeds, each with a label saying who found it, where and when. Six halls show what the drawers hold; the rest waits in the stores for anyone who asks.
- Specimen
- Purple jackdaw, Monedula purpurea
- Plate
- Engraved and coloured by hand, London, 1832
- Shown in
- Hall 1, Flight · ground floor, east wing
Six halls, one family tree.
Each hall follows one branch of life. Walk them in any order: the doors between them are always open.
Every plate on these walls was drawn from a specimen in our drawers, and the specimen is usually in the case beside it.
Insects
Beetles, moths and the bees that keep the county fed: 2.1 million insects, the largest part of the collection.
Deep time
Ammonites from the cliffs at Kingsbridge Bay, a mammoth tooth from the river gravels and four hundred million years in one walk.
Tide line
Shells, corals and the animals of the rock pools, with a living tank of the shore at the far end of the hall.
Plants
A herbarium of three hundred thousand pressed sheets, and the seed bank that keeps the county’s wild flowers alive.
Mammals
From the slow loris to the whale jaw above the landing: the animals we are most closely related to.
The Colour of Flight
Before photography, every bird in a book was engraved in black and coloured by hand, one wash at a time.
A hundred and twenty plates from 1790 to 1890, lent by eight libraries, show how colour learned to fly: the first blues that faded, the reds that never did, and the colourists whose names nobody wrote down.
- Dates
- 14 November 2026 to 26 April 2027
- Where
- Hall of Prints, first floor
- Tickets
- £9; under-16s and members free
Ninety-seven in every hundred specimens never go on show.
The halls hold three per cent of Wrenfield. The rest lives in 41,000 drawers on four floors of stores, catalogued and lent to researchers in thirty countries.
Book a drawer tour
Saturdays at 11:00 and 14:00 · £8 · a curator opens the drawer you choose
-
Hoverflies, 1,906 pinned
Drawer D-0412 · collected on the chalk downs, 1921 to 1974
-
Night moths, sorted by family
Drawer L-2207 · light-trapped in Kingsbridge gardens since 1950
-
Swallowtails and admirals
Drawer L-0090 · the Pembury bequest, 1888
-
A summer of the hedgerow
Herbarium sheet H-31877 · pressed by a school class in 2019
A third of the year, our curators are out there.
Wrenfield still collects: under licence, in small numbers, with the place and the hour written down. What our 38 scientists bring back goes into the drawers, and into the papers that show how the county is changing.
Chalk-stream mayflies
River Wend, 2024 to 2027: counting each spring’s hatch against a survey made in 1931.
Shingle beetles
Kingsbridge Bay, every April since 2011, on the same forty metres of beach.
The moor plots, again
Hartmoor: re-surveying, square by square, the plant plots a vicar pegged out in 1912.
Learn
Sessions for every age, all built around real specimens you are allowed to hold.
Tiny Naturalists
Ages 2 to 5 · Tuesdays, 10:00
Songs, feathers to stroke and a touch table of shells. Forty minutes; grown-ups stay.
Book a place
Specimen Detectives
Ages 6 to 11 · Saturdays, 11:00
A drawer, a hand lens and a mystery label to solve with a curator.
Book a place
Young Curators
Ages 12 to 16 · Wednesdays, 16:30
A term behind the scenes: catalogue a real drawer and write the labels for a case.
Apply for a term
School visits
Every key stage · free
Taught sessions in the halls, with a handling box sent to your classroom first.
Plan a class visit
After hours, the halls are yours.
On the first Friday of every month Wrenfield stays open from 18:30 to 22:00: talks under the albatross, a bar in the Hall of Flight and the stores open for drawer tours. £12, members free.
- Friday 6 November
Glow: a night in the deep halls
Bioluminescence, with the lights in Tide Line turned off.
Tickets - Friday 4 December
The Jackdaw Ball
The winter late: a band on the landing and the bird drawers open.
Tickets - Friday 8 January
Ask a taxidermist
How animals are prepared for a collection, honestly answered.
Tickets - Friday 5 February
Courtship in the drawers
Plumes, dances and the strange things animals do for love.
Tickets
Keep a drawer open.
Membership pays for the conservators who keep 4.2 million specimens from crumbling.
Members come to the Lates, the drawer tours and every exhibition free, and each year they choose one specimen we bring out of store for a month.
Friend
- Each year
- £40, or £60 for two
- Includes
- Free exhibitions and Lates, ten per cent in the shop
Fellow
- Each year
- £90 for a household
- Includes
- All of Friend, plus two drawer tours and a guest at every Late
Patron
- Each year
- £250
- Includes
- A private morning in the stores with the curator of your choice
Adopt a specimen
- Once
- £30, a gift that lasts a year
- Includes
- Your name on its label and a print of its plate
Free, Tuesday to Sunday.
Opening times
Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 17:30. Last entry 17:00. Closed on Mondays, 24 to 26 December and 1 January.
Admission
The six halls are free. The Colour of Flight is £9; drawer tours £8; Lates £12. Members go free to all three.
Getting here
1 Example Street, Kingsbridge KB1 0ZZ. Six minutes’ walk from Kingsbridge station; buses 12 and 14 stop outside. Bike racks by the east door.
Access
Step-free throughout, lifts to every floor, wheelchairs to borrow. Quiet mornings on the first Sunday of the month, 10:00 to 12:00.
Before you come
Anything else, ask the front desk or write to us.
Is entry really free?
Yes. The six halls are free for everyone, every day we are open. Booking a free ticket only helps us plan busy days; you can always walk in.
Can I bring a pushchair or a wheelchair?
Every hall is step-free, with lifts to each floor. Pushchairs are welcome everywhere, and we lend wheelchairs and folding stools at the front desk.
Can I take photographs?
Yes, without flash, in the halls and The Colour of Flight. Tripods are fine on quiet mornings.
Will you identify something I found?
Bring it to the identification desk on the first Saturday of each month, 11:00 to 15:00. Bones, shells, fossils, insects and pressed plants all welcome.
Is there somewhere to eat?
The café on the landing serves lunch until 15:00, and the picnic room on the lower ground floor is open to school groups and families.
How do I give a specimen to the museum?
Write to the collections team with a photograph and where it was found. We accept most donations that come with a record of their place and date.
Write to the curators.
Questions about a visit, a specimen or a session: a person reads every message.
Send a message
Find us
Wrenfield Museum of Natural History1 Example Street
Kingsbridge KB1 0ZZ hello@wrenfield.example
Field notes
One letter a month: what came out of the drawers, and the Lates before they sell out.