Established 1914 Founded 1914 | Website bexhillmuseum.co.uk | |
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Location Egerton Park, Bexhill-on-Sea Similar How We Lived Then, Blackberry Farm, Seaford Museum, Seven Sisters Sheep C, Hastings Museum and Art G | ||
Bexhill museum history
Bexhill Museum is in Bexhill-on-Sea in East Sussex. This museum was established in 2004 when two local museums merged. The former Bexhill Museum had been founded in 1914 after it asked one of its founders to resign. The museum is run by a charity, volunteers and two employees.
Contents
Rough cut bexhill museum volunteers film
History
The museum was founded by the nurse and explorer Kate Marsden and Reverend J.C. Thompson FGS. Marsden was one of the first women to be made a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society after she travelled thousands of miles across Russia to Siberia in 1891. Marsden is credited as the person who inspired the museum's creation as she organised meetings to gather local support. She invited local dignitaries and successfully applied for artefacts from Bryant and May, Frys and Colmans.
The museum was given a shell collection by Marsden and she encouraged Dr Walter Amsden to donate a collection of Egyptian artefacts. In 1913 the Mayor of Bexhill contacted the committee and revealed that Marsden had been involved in a controversy concerning her finances and sexuality. Marsden was obliged to resign. The museum still opened in 1914 but without Marsden.
Thompson served as voluntary curator until 1924. The local corporation provided a small grant and also gave the museum the use of a building in Egerton Park known as the Egerton Park Shelter Hall. This glass roofed hall had been built in 1903.
The controversy surrounding Kate Marsden was not resolved and she lived out her days suffering from dropsy and senile decay. After she died the museum refused a portrait that was offered to the museum that she had helped to create. Her Russian watch, medals, whistle and a brooch given to her by Queen Victoria were sent to the Royal Geographical Society.
The museum built up a collection of local archaeology and stuffed animals and also founded the Bexhill Museum Association in 1923 to oversee their work. The natural history collection was not well preserved as the temperature and light levels were difficult to control and the basement was liable to flood.
In 1986 the museum's buildings were remodelled. The lighting and heating were brought under better control and temporary exhibition space and a store were established in the previous toilet blocks. Over the next ten years the relationship with Rother Council led to a curator being transferred to the museum.
Today
The Bexhill museums merged in 2004. The new museum is run by volunteers. It is a registered charity overseen by trustees and it employs two people. The patron of the museum is Eddie Izzard who lives locally.
In March 2014 the museum launched an exhibition about Bexhill in World War One to commemorate the centenary of the start of the war and the opening of Bexhill Museum.