The Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon occupies a purpose-built building in The Square, near the Guildhall, and covers the archaeology, natural history, and social history of the North Devon region. It is a well-kept local museum of the kind that rewards visitors who want to understand where they are before heading out into the surrounding countryside.
The collections include significant holdings of North Devon ceramics — the distinctive sgraffito slipware that was produced in Barnstaple and Bideford from the late medieval period and exported across the Atlantic to the early American colonies. The archaeology section covers the area from prehistoric times through the Roman period and into the medieval. Natural history displays deal with the Exmoor ecosystem and the coastal environment. Entry is free.