THE Faith Museum will open to the public on 7 October, located in Auckland Castle, the former palace of the Bishops of Durham, in the Co. Durham town of Bishop Auckland.

Jeff Veitch/Durham UniversityBinchester ring

The museum will feature more than 250 objects from 50 institutions and private collections in England, Scotland, and Wales, and comprise “a series of dynamic gallery spaces with an active programme of rotating displays and temporary exhibitions”, a press release says.

The objects include: the Morton frontal, a 16th-century textile made from silk-velvet vestments, embroidered with imagery such as the lily crucifix; the Binchester ring, excavated at the Roman fort Vinovium in 2014, which includes carved carnelian stone bearing images of an anchor and fish, providing early evidence of Christianity in Britain; and the 14th-century “Chaucerian” Painswick astrolabe.

The founder of the Auckland Project, Jonathan Ruffer, said: “We have tried to tell stories which put into context 6000 years of human endeavour and the restlessness of the human spirit.” Auckland Castle reopened to the public in 2019 after a three-year, multi-million-pound makeover (News, 1 November 2019).