"Brecknock Museum was established in 1928 in a former chapel in Glamorgan Street in Brecon by the Brecknock Society. In the early 1970s the museum moved to the old Shire Hall, which since 1842 had housed the Assizes and Quarter Sessions.

The Sessions were abolished in 1971 shortly followed by Breconshire County Council. The funding and management of the museum was taken over by Powys County Council. The museum later changed its name to Brecknock Museum and Art Gallery recognizing the museum's important art collection mostly of Welsh artists.

The museum has a fine collection of archaeological finds from the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages as well as from the Roman times and the Middle Ages. One of the finest museum artefacts is a log-boat or 'dug-out' canoe. The boat was discovered in Llangors Lake east of the man-made island - or crannog by Thomas Jenkins, a local carpenter, in 1925 and was the first object displayed in the Brecknock Museum.

It has been conserved by the National Museum Wales. It was also radio-carbon dated to AD 760-1020 and it is now firmly associated in date with the crannog. The boat is now displayed together with other extremely rare early-medieval objects from the area discovered by archaeologists from the National Museum Cardiff and Cardiff University between 1989 and 1993.

The different exhibitions in this area show 19th century rural life in Brecknockshire. The gallery has a fully equipped smithy, an old farmhouse kitchen and a village schoolroom as well as displays of agricultural tools and equipment.

The gallery also has one of the biggest and finest collections of old love spoons in Wales. The Love Spoon was a tradition specific to rural Wales, when a young man would carve a love spoon for the lady he wanted to marry.

This gallery was refurbished and opened in 1996 as a complement to the Rural Life Gallery. The displays depict urban developments in Brecknockshire and especially Brecon mostly during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The gallery looks at all aspects of town-life including commerce, trade, industry, transport, domestic, cultural and 'back-street' life, religion, recreational activities, entertainment and education as well as the life of the local gentry and middle classes. The theme is continued in the Edwardian naturalist's study on the ground floor, which is packed full of curiosities from around the world and stuffed animals including an albino rat.

The courtroom was the scene of many dramatic trials in the 19th and early 20th centuries including thefts, robberies and murders. Sentences included executions, which were carried out publicly in front of the county gaol and transportation to the penal colonies in New South Wales.

In the 1990s the courtroom was brought back to life. The tableau, completed in 1998, shows a court case from 1880 involving a stolen cashbox. Models of court officers, jury, witnesses and the defendant fill up the room, while audio recordings relay the court proceedings.

In 1997 the Grand Jury Room of the Shire Hall was restored back to its original grand and elegant proportions and refurbished to house the museum's main art gallery. This area is used for temporary exhibitions as is a smaller area on the same floor. The museum has a varied and exciting exhibition programme often featuring the museum's extensive and important art collection and new works by Welsh contemporary artists."

BRECKNOCK MUSEUM IS CURRENTLY CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC - APRIL 2012.

Article by Eva Bredsdorff

Open: Monday - Friday 10:00 - 5:00 (occasionally closed 1 - 2:00 subject to staffing); Saturday 10:00 - 1:00 & 2:00 - 5:00. Sunday (April - September) 12.00 - 5:00. Closed the first Monday of every month (except Bank Holidays) Location: Captain's Walk, Brecon, Powys, LD3 7DW Telephone: 01874 624121 E-mail: Brecknock.Museum@powys.gov.uk Admission: Free