History of Yate Heritage Centre

Yate & District Heritage Centre, provided by Yate Town Council, has been located in a refurbished barn dating from the 1840s, which had been traditionally linked with the White Lion. Today, visitors can see the shell of the early Victorian rural building with a blocked doorway to accommodate horses and flag stones at the back of the building where horses and materials would have come and gone.

 The barn also had links with the local hunt, which met at the White Lion and horses were sometimes stabled in the barn. The role of the building is likely to have continued as a barn for the White Lion. After 1945, its role was not always clear but oral testimony points to its use as storage and finally dereliction. In the later 1990s, a fire began and removed much of the interioor of the building.

An earlier Heritage Centre had previously operated from Poole Court between 1994 and 1997. Inspired by the success of the original Heritage Centre and mindful of the support of the general public, Yate Town Council embarked on creating a new Heritage Centre in the former White Lion barn. In the late 1990s, key councillors came together with architects Quattro of Bristol to create a wonderful community heritage facility, which opened with great fanfare in September 2000. The creation of the new building was all the more remarkable as there had been an extensive fire in the original building a few years beforehand.

Since 2000, Yate Heritage Centre has established itself as the local authority museum, gallery and archive for the Yate area and a key part of South Gloucestershire Museums. Today the Heritage Centre has developed significant collections of local history artefacts, images, documents and audio material. We have also developed a collection of educational artefacts for the use of the community and local schools. As a result of our research and collections we have been able to put on a lively series of exhibitions and events since 2000 and we strive to be a hub for local history now and in the future. Our location adjacent to Yate's village green ensure we can organise regular major events at the Centre as well as having smaller holiday activities

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