Carisbrooke Castle Museum

Princess Beatrice, Queen Victoria’s youngest child, established the Museum as a memorial to her husband Prince Henry in 1898. Items relating to the history of the Isle of Wight were displayed along with several personal treasures of King Charles I, who had been imprisoned in the castle.

The expanding museum was relocated from the castle’s gatehouse to the Governor’s House in 1951. The Princess succeeded her husband as Governor of the Isle of Wight and had used the building as a residence. A watercolour depiction of the Great Hall in use as her drawing room is displayed at the museum.

Although English Heritage manages the Carisbrooke Castle site, the museum is maintained by a separate Charitable Trust. It is the only public museum in the country founded by a member of the Royal family. The collection includes a wide range of local history topics covering a timespan from prehistory to the present day, and includes applied art, fine art, photography, social history, science and technology, archaeology, and archives.

The Museum’s lower gallery, occupying the former medieval hall at the heart of the Governor’s House, tells the story of Carisbrooke Castle through six of its inhabitants. Visitors can view a room used as a bedroom by King Charles I during his imprisonment at the castle and displays on the upper floors tell the stories of the people, places and ways of living from the Isle of Wight’s past.

• A fictional review by Dorothy Davies – “The Weekly Visit to Carisbrooke Castle”
• Carisbrooke Castle Museum