Newstead Collections

Newstead Abbey, the ancestral home of the Byron family, along with the extensive estate, gardens, and the remains of the abbey, were presented to Nottingham Corporation by Sir Julien Cahn in 1931. The Fraser Collection of Byron and Newstead items was acquired the same year. It includes the Goodlake Collection of Crimean War memorabilia. Management of the “Byron Museum” (as the collections were then known) was added to the portfolio of the City Librarian and continued as such until management of all Nottingham museums was amalgamated under the Art Galleries and Museums Committee in 1973. The important Roe-Byron Collection was acquired in 1937. The remit of the collections has extended considerably beyond an interest in the poet Byron and his family and now covers:

• Newstead Priory: archival and archaeological material
• Byron Family: archival material, furniture, paintings, family portraits and memorabilia
• 6th Lord Byron (the poet): memorabilia including furniture, books, correspondence portraits, pictures, prints, costume and other personal belongings and documents
• Wildman and Webb Families: portraits, books, furniture, armour, pictures, prints, photographs, correspondence, household accounts and visitors’ books
• Architectural History of Newstead: prints, pictures, drawings, architectural plans and elevations, correspondence and other archival material
• History of the Newstead Estate: archival material including estate maps, site plans, sale catalogues, manuscripts and correspondence