Animal Magic Set to Enchant at Swindon Museum & Art Gallery

From now until Saturday 5th July, The Swindon Museum and Art Gallery will be displaying their collection of Natural History artefacts.

The display comprises of stuffed animals, birds, fish, eggs, shells, horns and antlers, as well as insects, plants and seeds many of which are from Swindon and the surrounding countryside.

You can see the diversity of creatures that call this area their home, as well as seeing species that have since become rare or extinct and can tell us much about the natural world and our local environment.

A hundred years ago, Swindon was still a small town dominated by the Great Western Railway Works. Away from the town centre, this was a very rural area filled with farms and woodlands. The wildlife of Swindon would have been far more diverse and abundant.

The wildlife on display shows some of the numerous wild animals that would have made this area their home. Nowadays, hares, adders and some birds of prey are a rare site in Swindon. The collections remind us how much has changed.