Abington Park - Abington Park Museum

Land for the park was given to the town by Lady Wantage in 1892 and the park was opened to the public in 1897. Two years later, in 1899, Abington Park Museum was opened in the centre of the park.

The museum was originally a manor house built at the turn of the 16th century. The Great Hall, now called the Oak Room because of its oak panelling, dates back to 1500. It was once home to William Shakespeare's granddaughter, Elizabeth Bernard née Elizabeth Hall, who was buried in 1670 in the adjacent late 12th century church of St Peter and St Paul. Her second marriage was to Sir John Bernard or Barnard, the MP for Huntingdon from 1660, who successively enlarged the house in the 1660s. It passed to the Thursby family in 1669 and was further enlarged and remodelled in the classical Georgian style between 1738 and 1743 by William Thursby. While owned by the Thursbys, the actor David Garrick planted a mulberry tree in the grounds in 1778, in recognition of his friendship with Anne Thursby. In 1821, during repairs to the church, all but the main tower of the church was blown down in a storm; the Thursbys rebuilt the main body of the church, which retains few of its original features. In 1841 the manor was sold and its contents auctioned off. It was converted into a lunatic asylum in 1845, directed first by Thomas Octavius Prichard and later his cousin Thomas Prichard. The asylum was closed in 1892, when the Manor House and grounds were donated by Lady Wantage to Northampton. Successively more and more parts of the house became open to the public. In 1994 the house was reopened as a museum after a complete restoration.

Today the museum features displays about the social and military history of Northampton and Northamptonshire. Exhibits include the Northamptonshire Regiment, local history, and changing exhibits of clothing from its costume collection.

The museum also features displays of leather objects and artifacts from around the world from the collections of the Museum of Leathercraft, a separate organization.