A HERITAGE museum is set to hold a series of events examining death, disease and curious customs.

Ripon Workhouse Museum said funeral parties, similar to ones which would have been held in the Allhallowgate building in the early 20th Century, would be staged from Thursday, April 2 to April 9 to mark it acquiring a funeral bier.

Funeral biers, which are tables, often with wheels, on which coffins or dead bodies are placed at a funeral, were pulled by the bearers when the mourners were unable to afford horse-drawn hearses.

The bier, which is being restored after being donated by Newby Hall Estates, was used to convey paupers' corpses to the burial grounds in Skelton parish, six miles from the city.

It is thought the hand bier was first used in 1901, probably for the first burial service held at the Skelton church.

The Death, Disease and Curious Customs events will feature a potions and poisons trail, in which the odd customs of Victorian funerals and some of the curious cures for common ailments on this trail for families will be highlighted.

Visitors will also be invited to make memorial jewellery reminiscent of Queen Victoria’s jet mourning brooches and create peg doll puppets and experience the Victorian era, join a wash day, try the Victorian craft of rag rugging and take part in a historic school lesson.

For details, visit riponmuseums.co.uk or call 01765 690799.