Reading Museum is set to dispose of items it no longer needs, including human bones and a Roman jewellery piece.
The museum in Reading Town Hall is free to enter, providing a place to connect with the area’s historical and cultural heritage.
Items of interest include artefacts from Roman Silchester, a Huntley & Palmers biscuit tin collection and a Victorian replica of the Bayeux Tapestry that depicts the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
The museum is managed by Reading Borough Council.
Councillors have recently agreed to dispose of 33 items that are either damaged, in poor condition or are duplicates.
They include human bones with either no or unclear provenance, part of a Roman bronze brooch which is incomplete and too damaged to be of further use, and duplicate collectable ale bottles.
The disposal of these items is part of a wider project to assess, decant
and move almost 500,000 objects to a new collection store, which was decided in 2020/21, and subsequent collection management improvements at the new store.
The items recently identified have been found to be of no further use for display, education, or research, or would be more appropriate to be added to the collection of another museum.
A decision was made by councillors to dispose of the items at a recent meeting of its housing, neighbourhoods and leisure committee.
Simon Smith, the council’s library and museum manager, stated that the items will be disposed of in line with the museum’s collection development policy.
But there was a query over where the items will end up.
Councillor Jan Gavin (Labour, Caversham) asked: “I completely understand the disposals policy. I’m just unclear when we talk about disposal, what do we mean by that?
“I mean, presumably it’s not a black sack which goes into landfill.
“So, how are these items disposed of? Are they passed on to schools to play with, or are they offered to other institutions?
“Because I note that many of them are damaged or corroded or are of little value, so I’m just wondering what their destination is?”
Mr Smith replied: “Ultimately, the aim within the museum sector is to keep things within the museum sector if possible.
“If they are not suitable to be in the museum sector for whatever reason, because they are of low value, broken or damaged, then we do dispose of things occasionally through auctioneers.
“I don’t know where each of these items is destined for, but it is all in line with the policy.
“No, we won’t just be putting them in a bin, they’ll be disposed of properly.”
Councillors decided to dispose of the items as part of the Reading Museum Forward Plan 2025-2030 at the meeting in March.
