Abingdon County Hall Museum is a local museum in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England.
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The museum is housed in a Grade I listed 17th century County Hall building, located in the Market Place in the centre of the town.[1] Nikolaus Pevsner said of the building: "Of the free-standing town halls of England with open ground floors this is the grandest".[2] The building was formerly the county hall of Berkshire. Abingdon was the county town until it ceded that title to Reading in 1867. The hall was built 1678–82 and was most likely designed by the Oxfordshire-born stonemason Christopher Kempster, who trained with Sir Christopher Wren on St Paul's Cathedral.[3] It stands on pillars with a sheltered area beneath for use as a market or other municipal functions It is next to the main market square.
From 2010, the museum and building are undergoing a two-year restoration programme,[4] partly funded by the National Lottery.
The museum has permanent collections and presents temporary exhibitions several times a year. There are also smaller exhibitions on local themes that are changed every month.[5]
On 1 December 2011, with the help of British Motor Heritage, the last MGB Roadster sports car off the production line in Abingdon in 1980 was lifted through a window 30 feet up, for display in the museum's main gallery from 2012.[6]
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