Thornbury Coin Hoard and the Romans

While digging a new pond in his Thornbury garden, Ken Allen unearthed a broken pot containing small muddy coins. He soon realised there could be thousands of them…

Come and find out the story of our local Coin Hoard – and discover something about the Romans in our area. Maybe you’ve found something in your garden?

The Market Town

Thornbury is known as a market town and, for over 900 years, that’s exactly what it was – a town with a market at its heart.

Over the centuries, the market acted as a magnet, bringing all sorts of traders and professional people to the town.

Come and see photos of Thornbury’s markets old and new.

Local People

Discover some of the people who played a part in the growth of Thornbury. E.M. Grace, pictured on the right (brother of W.G.), was a Thornbury doctor. He founded Thornbury Cricket Club, where W.G. played. If you want to know anything about cricket in the town, ask Bob, one of our volunteers!

Find out who owned the sawmills and the brickworks – and who ran the Picture House!

Occupations

As a market town, Thornbury has always attracted traders, professionals and craftspeople, offering services from shoeing horses to making baskets or drawing up legal documents. The same is true today – even if some of the occupations have moved with the times!

Have a look at our display boards and work out which occupations have died out and which are still going strong.

The Way We Lived

There are all kinds of things to find out here about life in Thornbury in the past.

You can discover when a gas supply first came to the town, when wells were dug and the Pump was erected.

Find out when the railway was built (and when it stopped running). The picture above shows a motor bus stopping outside the Swan in the early 1900s. Can you spot what’s different about The Swan?

The Littleton Whale

Great was the excitement when a whale became beached at Littleton-upon-Severn in January 1885.

Local traction engines from Olveston were used to haul it ashore. It became an overnight sensation and the Midland Railway ran special trains to Thornbury, the nearest station. People wanting to see the whale formed a queue of traffic three miles long, according to the Gazette.

Our display tells the full story…