YOUNG ALHS
the museum of
childhood and home
Many people who visited Abergavenny in the 1990s remember the Museum of Childhood and Home which was usually called the Abergavenny Toy Museum. It was in the old Bethany Chapel which is now the Art Shop and Chapel. It opened in 1992 but sadly it had closed again before the end of the decade and the collection dispersed or sold at auction. Many local people remember going there and one lady said she used to make dolls clothes and mend dolls for the owner.
The most famous item in the collection was the haunted dolls house which was made in Germany and then taken to the USA. It was bought by a Welsh family and when the Mother and two children returned to Merthyr they brought the dolls house with them. The father was supposed to be returning a few months later but then one child said she could see her father waving to her from the doll house. Soon the family were told that the father had died when his ship sank. Sadly the mother and two children also died when their house caught fire but somehow the dolls house survived. The next owners also said they could see people waving from the dolls house windows, but we may never know if the dolls house is still haunted.
(Images: Museum interior – Udo Schultz. Bethany Chapel – Abergavenny Street Survey.
A dolls house similar to the haunted one – Wikimedia Commons)
Download the complete YoungALHS collection here
Download Abergavenny Tales and Trails 2 here.
