Sheffield: New natural history museum opens in city

The museum's collection is focused on Yorkshire prehistoric life

A new museum of natural history in Yorkshire has been given the seal of approval by its famous London namesake.

The Yorkshire Natural History Museum in Sheffield opens its doors to the inquiring public on Saturday.

The museum features a treasure trove of fossils from the private collection of palaeontology expert James Hogg.

Mr Hogg said his interest in fossils was fuelled by visits to the Natural History Museum in London, which said his new venture was "wonderful".

The 23-year-old said he had been interested in palaeontology from childhood, but his passion grew after visiting the Natural History Museum almost every day while he studied in the capital.

Mr Hogg said the new museum's collection was focused on Yorkshire's prehistoric life and was built up from items he had collected or bought over the years.

"We've got a wide variety of specimens," he said.

"We've got things from minerals to fossils.

"It's predominately a collection of Jurassic marine life, so things ranging from ammonites, belemnites to plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs."

'Great museums'

Doug Gurr, director of the Natural History Museum in London, described the Sheffield museum as "wonderful".

"There's a lot of great museums in Yorkshire, but to have a new natural history museum up there in Sheffield I think is terrific," he said.

Speaking on BBC Radio Four's Today programme, he offered Mr Hogg a behind-the-scenes tour and a chance to meet the curators.

"Anything we can do to support a new museum we would absolutely love to do," Mr Gurr added.

The Sheffield museum is hosted in the Edwardian head office of a former steelworks on Holme Lane.

Mr Hogg said he and the charity's trustees hoped the building would become a "community hub for all those interest in science".

He said it would house a conservation lab which would be open to the public.