Castleford Forum Museum

Touchscreen interactive exhibits and games showcase the history of the Castleford area, from the Romans to rugby, making the most of a building where space is at a premium.
Community involvement was key to the success of this new museum, developed to showcase the rich history of the Castleford area, from the Romans, to Rugby, to the upbringing of artist Henry Moore.

The public were keen to use the existing Carnegie Building library as the museum’s home and this was refurbished and extended to house some prize exhibits. But with such a wealth of history to showcase and space at a premium, a technological answer was needed to the challenge of displaying all that the museum has to offer.

We developed three touchscreen interactives to display images and games around the themes of Roman life, the history of Rugby in the Castleford area, and the life of Henry Moore.

Interactive Game
Castleford Roman messenger game 1
An interactive game follows the journey of a Roman messenger as he delivers important news to the fort in Castleford. Along his way he encounters a number of objects which shed light on life as a Roman in England.
Castleford Roman messenger game 2
Castleford Roman messenger game 3
Photo Viewer

An interactive touchscreen displays a wealth of photographic memorabilia throughout the history of Castleford Tigers Rugby Club, their fans, and sporting exploits.
Castleford Rugby interactive exhibit 1
Interactive Timeline

Henry Moore’s life is explained using an interactive timeline to explore key events in the artist’s history. The display also includes a number of images from the ‘Castleford Sketchbook’ by his school friend Albert Wainwright, recording many of the places that Moore would have been familiar with when living in the town in the 1920s.
Henry Moore interactive exhibit 1
Castleford Wainright sketch book 1
Castleford Rugby interactive exhibit 2
We worked very closely with the curatorial team and Wakefield Council’s in-house graphics team who were keen to maintain control over the look and experience of using the interactives. Together we were able to create touchscreen exhibits that had great visitor appeal.

In fact, we were thrilled to see this as part of a glowing review on Trip Advisor:

“Also to hand is a small touchscreen gadget with the relevant facts about Henry Moore and his life – even his wedding picture with Irina is on here. I’m not really a fan of electronic gadgets in museums – but this is an exception and very worthwhile – especially if you are a Henry Spencer Moore fan! Visit!”

If we can please someone who doesn’t like interactive exhibits, we must be doing something right!