The museum was created and is run by the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, a registered charity founded in 1853.

The society bought a former grammar school on Long Street, south of the town's market place, to house the museum.

The collection covers periods of history from as far back as the Palaeolithic and also has Neolithic, Bronze Age, Roman, Saxon, Mediaeval and more recent historical artefacts.

[3] One of the most important collections at the museum is the finds from Bush Barrow, an early Bronze Age burial mound in the Stonehenge area.

The barrow was excavated by William Cunnington in 1808 and produced the richest and most important finds from a Bronze Age grave in the Stonehenge Landscape to date.