Our collection

The Young Gallery is a free art museum in the centre of Salisbury. It holds a collection of over 4000 objects, including paintings, prints. sculpture, books and photography. The collection began with over 300 watercolour paintings showing scenes of Salisbury and the surrounding area by Edwin Young (the namesake of the Gallery).

To compliment this collection, a growing number of watercolours by artists of different periods have since been acquired. Additionally, 2,000 books in over 20 languages, as well as manuscripts, designs for book jackets, and ephemera relating to the crime and thriller writer John Creasey became part of the collection in the 1970s.

The collection has grown to contain a diverse collection of artwork and prints. It contains many works by Robin Tanner, Edgar Barclay and William Goldsmith, as well as prints by J M W Turner, John Constable, David Hockney and Henry Moore. The growing collection of contemporary artworks also include photographs by leading British photographers Fay Godwin, Tony Ray Jones and Mick Maslen.

A selection of works from the permanent collection is available to view in Gallery 2 all year round. If you are interested in more about the collection and any objects that are not currently on display, please email YoungGallery@wiltshire.gov.uk (opens new window).

Edwin Young

The collection comprises approximately 535 watercolours, drawings and unfinished works of art by Edwin Young (1831-1913). Young was a competent watercolourist and often illustrated Salisbury and the surrounding area. His work provides an important source of topographical and social historical content for the area from the middle of the 19th century to the period just before the First World War.

John Creasey

In the 1970s, local crime author, John Creasey gifted more than 2,000 objects to the collection. This included editions of his books in over 20 languages, as well as designs for book jackets, and an impressive collection of walking sticks. Creasey also generously left an endowment toward the care and development of the collection.