CRAIGAVON MUSEUM SERVICES is based at Waterside House, Oxford Island. The museum contains an exhibition area, a local history library, a workshop, office accommodation and storage facility.
The museum‘s collection records the social history of the Craigavon area including the towns of both Portadown and Lurgan and the surrounding villages. It is based on items collected originally by the former Portadown Museum which opened in the Carnegie library back in 1953, although since then, many more objects of local interest and significance have been added to the collection.
The Museum Exhibition Building at Waterside House stages temporary exhibitions of local historical interest. Some of the more recent have included an exhibition which took a look at the formation, development and decline of the Newry Canal and a touring exhibition which explored the history of Northern Ireland’s cultural diversity.
The Philip B Wilson local history library located within the Museum Services building at Waterside House was officially opened in 1998 and named in honour of a past Curator and historian in recognition of his contribution to local history in the Borough of Craigavon. Today the library holds over 2,500 local history books on a range of topics. However the main focus of the library is on the history of the Craigavon area, the library also holds a substantial number of books from the Ulster Quarterly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. This collection is recognised as one of the most extensive libraries of Quaker books in Ireland and records the history of the Quakers from the middle of the seventeenth century. It reflects the long association of Quakers with the area, as the first meeting in Ireland was held in Lurgan back in 1654.
More recently, a unique collection of Methodist books, dating from the middle of the eighteenth century has been acquired, covering the rise and development of the Methodist Church in Britain and Ireland with a focus on local congregational histories. Methodism was ‘born in song’ and with many rare editions of poems, hymns and music included alongside the works, writings and sermons of John Wesley (the founder of Methodism) the collection helps provide a useful insight into the social history and thinking of the period.
Of great benefit to researchers is a growing collection of over 25,000 photographic images which record the development of the Craigavon area in terms of town / village development, industry, prominent families and individuals. Also available for consultation is a comprehensive collection of large Scale Ordnance Survey maps of the Craigavon area, dating from the more recent, back to the 1830s. We subscribe to and hold complete runs of a number of historical based journals including Ulster Folklife by the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, History Ireland, Archaeology Ireland and Review (Craigavon Historical Society’s bi-annual publication) to mention just a few.