Activities and Events

A variety of exciting activities, workshops and events take place in the museum galleries, the community rooms and out in the town. These include getting hands on with museum objects, art sessions, memory cafes and ‘behind-the-scenes’ tours of the museum stores. Keep checking back regularly to see what’s coming up.

See our latest newsletter here

Full details about our upcoming events:

Poetry at the Museum

Join us in July for a 90 minute performance developed specially for Newton Abbot Museum. Some of the South West’s best-loved poets present their Templer Way writing to a backdrop display of artwork illustrating this unique part of Newton Abbot’s heritage.

You may know the Templer Way well – may even have walked all 16 miles of this favourite South Devon footpath and be familiar with its 200+ years of local history: from 1792 when James Templer constructed a canal between Teigngrace and Newton Abbot to transport clay from his workings, through 1820 when George Templer built the iconic granite tramway linking Haytor Quarry with the newly extended canal.

But here is a completely new approach to that chronicle of human endeavour: a group of highly accomplished local artists and writers have spent many months documenting the landscape and industrial developments each in their own unique form. 

The concept of visual artists working closely with writers is not new. But here the collaboration has been outstanding: poets have taken inspiration from newly-created images while mark makers – painters, printmakers, photographers and potters – have read and listened to the poets then created their own responses to the writing. The result is visually spectacular, socially involving and fascinating. Expect an evening of fascinating facts, evocative poetry and stunning artworks, all in the wonderful surroundings of the museum – don’t miss it!

(Unearthing Templer Way is part of the Teignbridge Arts Project)

Thursday Summer Crafts!

During the summer exhibition (upstairs in the building’s community rooms) we will hold weekly family workshops each Thursday. Book your free place here.

Sessions run from 10am – 11.am and 11.30am – 12.30pm.

Thursday 7th August: Engine pen and pencil holder

Use lots of recycled materials to make a pen and pencil holder in the shape of an engine. Be inspired by the museum’s fantastic photographs of engines from the past and make your own to sit proudly on your desk or table at home.

Thursday 14th August: Paper chain train

If you love trains, engines, carriages and goods wagons then we can help you make a train paper chain to decorate your room. It can be as long or as short as you like and you can keep adding carriages and goods wagons to be towed by your paper engine.

Thursday 21st August: The Train Game

Make your own board game to play on those cosy Autumn weekends when we will all be stuck at home whilst its raining outside. With a train theme, your board game be lots of fun and you can make up the rules!

Thursday 28th August: Wear it

How about wearing a train? We will have all of the materials that you need to make amazing railway badges or necklaces.

Museum Make and Create

FREE family activity, first Saturday of the month, 10:30-12:30

Upcoming Workshops:

Saturday 2nd August

We are celebrating the railways throughout August so come along and find about the history of the railways in Newton Abbot.  Make a model engine and a goods wagon so that you have somewhere to put your ‘nick nacks’ and treasured objects.

Saturday 6th September

As part of the decade-long, Devon-wide celebrations of the 1920’s we will be focusing on holidays and how people loved to send postcards to family and friends back home with tales of being on the beach or walking on Dartmoor. Make postcards to send messages out about what you have done over the Summer and we will give you a stamp so that you can post it off!

Saturday 4th October

When Newton’s Place opened to the public in 2020, the museum installed a set of time capsules. But, the difference with our time capsules is that instead of being buried underground in a metal box, each capsule is made of glass so that you can see what objects people chose to be included. In this workshop, you can make your own time capsule – what will you put in for people in the future to discover?

Saturday 3rd November

Our sewing and knitting workshops are always popular and so in November you can dive into this again with plenty of ideas for things that you can stitch together and knit. But don’t worry if you haven’t sewn or knitted before as our expert museum volunteer will be on hand to show you the ropes.

Saturday 6th December

With Christmas just around the corner we will be sharing beautiful Victorian Christmas cards from the museum’s collection to inspire you to create your own Victorian card. We will also be making festive Christmas bunting to decorate your home.

Toddler Tuesdays, during term-time

Upcoming sessions:

July

1st

8th

15th

22nd – Last session before the Summer Holidays – returns September 2025!

September

9th

16th

23rd

30th

Creative Writing Workshop

Workshop lead by: Myfanwy (Vanni) Cook

This workshop will focus on the Great Western Railway (GWR) founded in 1833 a company ‘engineered by’ Isambard Kingdom Brunel that linked London to the west and southwest of England and Wales.

It will include the role of Newton About Railway Station (opened in 1846) and famous locomotives and train services that ran on the line like the Cornish Riviera Express and some of the famous passengers who travelled on these services.

It will use items from the Newton Abbot Museum collection as part of a series of structured activities to introduce creative writer to the art of biographical, romantic and historical crime fiction writing.

Myfanwy is the New Voices column editor for the Historical Novels Review magazine www.historicalnovelsociety.org

Upcoming Relaxed visits

Newton Abbot Museum welcomes anyone who might benefit from visiting the Museum at a quieter time.

Upcoming Sessions:

Monday 11th August, 1pm-3pm

Monday 27th October, 1pm-3pm

Monday 16th February, 1pm-3pm

In the meantime you can contact the museum to find out when the quieter times in the museum are.

Explore our galleries in a calm and relaxed environment where we will ensure our sound levels are reduced. There will be a quiet space available away from the galleries, and you are welcome to borrow our new sensory bags and ear-defenders.

These sessions are great for visitors with Autistic Spectrum Disorder or other communication and sensory needs and their families / carers but are suitable for all.

To help you prepare for your visit we have made a visual story which you can see if you click here. For other access information please visit our Museum Access page.

If you have any questions about the Museum’s relaxed visits or require any further information, please email [email protected] or phone 01626 201121

Autumn 2025

Twilight Sketching

Returns Autumn 2025!

Every Monday fortnight 4pm – 6pm

No booking required, FREE

Bring your sketch pad and pencils and relax in the magnificent surroundings on the Museum. Be inspired by historical treasures and being out your creative side.

Temporary Exhibitions

Your Space Case (in the conservation section)

A monthly treat is in store when you visit the museum as we change this case each time to feature either outcomes of art projects or objects that are collected by local people, providing something different to see each time you visit us.

May: Ship Ahoy! Something completely different for May in Your Space as we feature a collection of model boats from the Indian Ocean,  including a very rare boat model from Sri Lanka that is no longer made today. These delicate little models were collected as part of doctoral research by the museum’s curator, Dr Charlotte Dixon.

June: Items from Shaldon Road Methodist church on the Buckland estate to celebrate their 50th anniversary. They will be showing items from the church that have been used by the congregation across the years.

July: Enthusiastic collector, Paul Massie, has always enjoyed collecting and started with the usual stamps and coins but was never able to stop. Throughout July, Paul will share his collections of photographic processes dating from the 1850s onward, some Scottish Presbyterian communion tokens and club-night fliers from the 1990s – an eclectic mix indeed.

August: More items from the museums enormous collection of railway-themed objects will be on show to compliment our Summer exhibition.

September: Museum objects from the 1920’s will fill the case this month. Come and view largely unseen gems from the museum store rooms from over 100 years ago.

October: A locally-made dolls house will grace the Your Space case this month. Using all sorts of arts and crafts our local dolls house enthusiast has created a unique miniature home with lots of quirks.

Do you have a collection that you would like to share? We are looking for collections to share across 2026. To find out if any of your cherished items could go on show in the Your Space Community Case in the future, please have a chat with staff in the museum or email our Community Engagement Officer Kate Green at [email protected]

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Within the community rooms, the museum and local groups/schools can hold regular exhibitions of collections and artwork.

There is always something new to see and do in the museum – even for regular visitors. Every month, a different group or school chooses a new item for our ‘Object of the Month’ case. The photo wall has a new theme each month, with historic images of local places, people and events from different eras. The ‘Your Space’ case is updated regularly with displays of collections or artwork by the local community. Our ‘Recent Donations’ area allows us to display the very latest objects that have been added to the museum collection. In addition, our bespoke gallery cases have a flexible design so that displays can be easily updated and changed and the objects swapped with items in our stores.

Do you have a collection or make anything that you would like to share in the Your Space Community Case? We’d love to hear from you – please contact us with your suggestions.

You can find details of Town Council events here

You can view our museum gallery of past events and activities here or explore past temporary exhibitions and the museum collection here

The community rooms in Newton’s Place are available for hire, full information is on The Town Council’s website here