The Museum of Somerset in the 12th-century great hall of Taunton Castle

The Museum of Somerset is located in the 12th-century great hall of Taunton Castle, in Taunton in the county of Somerset, England. The museum is run by South West Heritage Trust, an independent charity, and includes objects initially collected by the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society who own the castle. Until 2008 the museum was known as the Somerset County Museum. Heritage Lottery Fund support was obtained to improve the museum, and the new museum reopened on 29 September 2011.

Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, visited the museum on 8 May 1987. The museum's collections include the Frome Hoard, a hoard of 52,503 Roman coins found in April 2010 by metal detectorist Dave Crisp near the town of Frome. The coins, which date from AD 253 to 305 and are mostly made from debased silver or bronze, were contained in a ceramic pot 45 cm (18 in) in diameter. The hoard is one of the largest ever found in Britain and contains the largest group ever found of coins issued during the reign of Carausius, who ruled Britain independently from 286 to 293 and was the first Roman emperor to strike coins in Britain. The Museum of Somerset acquired the hoard in 2011, using a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund.

Apart from the Frome Hoard, the museum encompasses a collection of toys and dolls, sculpture, natural history, fossils, fine silver, remains of pottery, and a range of other objects relating to the history of the county. The collections also include material collected by self-taught archaeologist Mary Harfield and the Low Ham Roman Mosaic. Visitors can also visit the Somerset Military Museum, where they are enabled to follow the fortunes of the Somerset Light Infantry as they carried out their campaigns across the world.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons