ICE AGE EXHIBITION

Tuesday 25 January – Sunday 27 March

Changing climate, rising sea-levels, mass migration, extinction of species. Sounds familiar?

We’re causing it now, but it’s all happened before. Here is a chance to explore half a million years of ancient local history.

  • Discover how the Ice Age could get rather hot.

  • How we were not the only humans to leave a mark.

  • How our landscape and the creatures inhabiting it would be unrecognisable to us today.

From mammoths to man-caves, from treeless tundra to sultry swamps and fascinating forests. The Ice Age is full of surprises.

35,000 years ago the Stroud District was right on the edge of a gigantic sheet of ice. The Ice Age exhibition will use the museum collections to paint a picture of a very different world to the one we know today. Woolly mammoths and rhinoceros roamed the area, coming down to the Frome to drink. Deer and elk were frequent visitors, with wild horses, aurochs and boar a common sight for the occasional human visitor to the area. Whilst we have the remains of all of these animals in the collections, humans left almost no trace of their presence here in Stroud. Fortunately, the collections of local antiquarian Vernon Parry Kitchin will allow us to also present tools from the wider UK to demonstrate the lives of humans during the Ice Age.

Come and explore the exhibition, join our talks, take part in our free family activities at weekends and during school holidays … we look forward to welcoming you!

For details of Ice Age talks and special events click here.

Click here to discover a 'star' exhibit that has been generously loaned to the museum for the Ice Age Exhibition.

Exhibition Promotional film:

To discuss a school visit or ask about learning resources please contact our Learning Officer by email:  museum@stroud.gov.uk

Mammoth Skull The Museum has been able to secure the loan of one of only a handful of intact mammoth skulls ever found in this country – and it’s a truly remarkable sight (pictured below). Generously loaned to the museum by Moreton C. Cullimore (Gravels) Ltd. the skull was found in a quarrying site at Ashton Keynes in 2004. It is thought to have belonged to a female Woolly Mammoth who roamed the area some 50,000 years ago, and who was around 40 years old at the time of her death.

Mammoth Skull - Picture courtesy of stroudtimes.com - Not to be reproduced without permission

‘Ice Age’ is a touring exhibition from Museums Worcestershire, enhanced by artefacts from The Museum in the Park’s own collections.  The Ice Age exhibition was originally part of Lost Landscapes; a joint project between Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service and Museums Worcestershire, with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Here in Stroud the exhibition will be accompanied by talks and special events made possible by a grant from Arts Council England.