In brief

Clarke Hall has been put up for sale after Wakefield council failed to find an organisation willing to take on the living history museum. The council launched a formal tendering process in December to find an operator for the site, but the deadline passed in June. The museum has been under threat since the withdrawal of its Designated School Grant last year.


The Royal Armouries in Leeds has appointed its finance director Chris Walker as interim chief executive and accounting officer. Walker replaces Andrew Scott, who has held the post since May, following the suspension of Jonathon Riley as director-general over an auditing matter. 


The Story Museum in Oxford is now scheduled to open in 2015 after the city failed in its bid to become the Unesco World Book Capital City. The museum hoped to launch in time for the year-long festival, which runs from April 2014.


Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service aims to become the country’s first teaching museum by offering eight starter posts across the service beginning in January 2013.

Bill Seaman, assistant head of the museums service, said the 12-month contracts, which have a stipend of £15,725, “provide an alternative entry route into museum employment”. The trainees will be based in departments such as archaeology, learning and social history. The scheme was launched with funding from Arts Council England.