Hereford Museum and Art Gallery

The museum and art gallery's history is closely linked with the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club. The Woolhope Club was founded in 1851 "for the practical study, in all its branches, of the Natural History of Herefordshire and the districts immediately adjacent". The club took its name from the Woolhope Dome, an outcrop of Silurian rocks around the village of Woolhope to the south-east of Hereford. The Woolhope club was founded in 1851 at a meeting of the Literary, Philosophical and Natural History Institution of Hereford. In 1869 the club's president, Sir James Rankin MP, offered money for the building of a library and museum during his presidential retirement speech of 22 February 1870.…

The Hereford Times described the Library and Museum building as "truly an ornament of the city" The building was designed by local architect Frederick Roberston Kempson, FRIBA. His design was heavily influenced by Venetian Gothic revival style. Its distinctive façade features intricate carvings of animals, plants and signs of the zodiac. The building cost £7,600, of which James Rankin gave £6,115 and the City Council raised the rest. On the ground floor two rooms faces onto Broad Street, although intended to be reading and committee rooms they had to be let as shops to raise funds for museum display cases. While at the rear was the large, double height lending library. On the second floor…