The Seaside Museum Herne Bay is a local museum in Herne Bay,

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. It was established in 1932 (as the Herne Bay Museum) and is notable for being a seaside tourist attraction featuring local archaeological and social history, for featuring the history of the town as a tourist resort, for its local art exhibitions, and for its

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

bouncing bomb A bouncing bomb is a bomb designed to bounce to a target across water in a calculated manner to avoid obstacles such as torpedo nets, and to allow both the bomb's speed on arrival at the target and the timing of its detonation to be pre-deter ...

. The management of the Museum was awarded by Canterbury City Council to the Herne Bay Museum Trust, who reopened it in July 2015 as The Seaside Museum Herne Bay.

History

The museum was originally established in 1932 as Herne Bay Records Society (known as Herne Bay Historical Records Society from 1988). From 1936 to 1939 the exhibits were in the hall at 53 Mortimer Street, Herne Bay, and from 1939 the museum was sited in the High Street above the Public Library. It moved to its present no. 12 William Street site in 1996.Herne Bay Historical Records Society The William Street premises is a Georgian building now in a

Conservation Area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

, and William Street was the main shopping street until at least 1883. It was run for years by local historian, Harold Gough, and is funded and administered by

Canterbury City Council Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of the ...

. The exhibits are owned by Herne Bay Historical Records Society, and loaned to Canterbury City Council museums service. The museum was a Canterbury City Council Mystery Shopper Awards 2009 silver award winner. The gallery hosts local art exhibitions, and there is a free events programme.

Dr Tom Bowes

Dr Thomas Armstrong Bowes MA MD FSA (1869–1954) was a local medical doctor, local historian,

antiquarian An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (person), aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifact (archaeology), artifac ...

and collector. He rescued stone tools, pottery and artefacts turned up by workmen and builders in the area, benefiting greatly from the constant excavations of F.W.J. Palmer who was Surveyor to the Council between 1891 and 1915. He photographed local historical artefacts to make lantern slides for his lectures. He retired in 1930 and founded the Herne Bay Records Society and Museum in 1932, and donated much of his collection in 1936 to the museum, where it was housed in the hall at 53 Mortimer Street.Herne Bay Museum exhibit label He was president of the HBRS from 1949 to 1951.

Harold Gough

Harold Gough was a successor to Dr Tom Bowes in that he was a local writer, historian and honorary curator of the Herne Bay Records Society who helped to run the museum for many years. He was responsible, for example, for the museum's exhibits on Herne Bay clock tower, the first of its kind, and for researching the clock tower and other local landmarks, such as Herne Bay Pier. He was president of the Herne Bay Historical Records Society from 1992 to 2008.

Ken Reedie

Ken Reedie was curator of the Canterbury museums from the early 1970s until 2011.

Exhibits

The collections illustrate 60 million years of living history in the area, from

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s through

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with ...

artefacts, the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

fort and

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wit ...

church at Reculver, smuggling at Herne, the town's development as a Victorian

seaside resort A seaside resort is a town, village, or hotel that serves as a vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of official accreditation based on the satisfaction of certain requirements, such as in the Germa ...

, the two world wars and social history. Themes include the surrounding area, holidays,

piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...

, the clock tower,

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsc ...

palaeontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

and

local history Local history is the study of history in a geographically local context, often concentrating on a relatively small local community. It incorporates cultural and social aspects of history. Local history is not merely national history writ small ...

. Thus the museum provides material for education about

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

as well as preserving a sense of local identity, as

oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...

would have done in previous cultures. Most of the museum's collections are owned by the Herne Bay Historical Trust, which inherited them from Dr Tom Bowes.

Bouncing bomb

The main attraction for tourists is a prototype of the

Barnes Wallis Sir Barnes Neville Wallis (26 September 1887 – 30 October 1979) was an English engineer and inventor. He is best known for inventing the bouncing bomb used by the Royal Air Force in Operation Chastise (the "Dambusters" raid) to attac ...

Highball

that was tested in the sea off Reculver between 6 April and 13 May 1943. The location was chosen because the shallow water allowed easy recovery at low tide, and it was secure and close to

RAF Manston Royal Air Force Manston or more simply RAF Manston is a former Royal Air Force station located in the north-east of Kent, at on the Isle of Thanet from 1916 until 1996. The site was split between a commercial airport Kent International Airpo ...

. To imitate the weight of explosive, the designers filled the Highball with ''checol'': concrete and chalk. The Army found this exhibit on the seabed in 1997, and it has been conserved for display. The Upkeep bouncing bomb, a later development of this prototype, was used in the 1943 Dambuster raids. Really a mine and not a bomb, it worked by skimming like a pebble over water to jump over

torpedo net Torpedo nets were a passive ship defensive device against torpedoes. They were in common use from the 1890s until the Second World War. They were superseded by the anti-torpedo bulge and torpedo belts. Origins With the introduction of the White ...

s. It was then designed to hit the dam and roll down to 30 feet where the water pressure caused detonation.

Archaeology and palaeontology

Archaeological exhibits include

finds from the Saxon church at Reculver and

archaeology from the Roman

fort A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

nearby. Palaeontological exhibits include mammoth tusks and an educational search exercise for children to find sharks' teeth: first in trays at the museum, where there are five ''Stratolamia macrota'', and then in the sand and small stones at low tide. There is an exhibit of numbered and named fossils found in 1939 at Bishopstone by beachcomber J. E. Cooper. It consists of the following 50–60 million-years-old items: sharks' teeth ''Stratolamia striata'' and ''Odotus obliquus''; green

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicat ...

from the Thanet Sands layer containing the tiny

bivalve Bivalvia (), in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class (biology), class of marine and freshwater Mollusca, molluscs that have laterally compressed bodies enclosed by a shell consisting of two hing ...

shell fossils ''Corbula regulbiensis''; fossil wood and pine cones; Thanet Sand containing the bivalve shell ''Cucullaea decusata''; fossil oyster shells ''Ostrea bellovacina''; the large bivalve ''Arctica scutellaria''; ''Arctica morrisi'' bivalve casts, one with shell; brown sandstone from the Oldhaven Beds layer with shark's tooth; ''Arctica morrisi'' and other bivalves in Oldhaven Beds sandstone; stems of the

sea lily Crinoids are marine animals that make up the class Crinoidea. Crinoids that are attached to the sea bottom by a stalk in their adult form are commonly called sea lilies, while the unstalked forms are called feather stars or comatulids, which ar ...

, which is related to the

sea urchin Sea urchins () are spiny, globular echinoderms in the class Echinoidea. About 950 species of sea urchin live on the seabed of every ocean and inhabit every depth zone from the intertidal seashore down to . The spherical, hard shells (tests) o ...

; fossil fish backbones;

Ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...

mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks an ...

tooth; sea-worn mammoth tooth; selenite sand roses (not fossils); selenite crystals from

London Clay The London Clay Formation is a marine geological formation of Ypresian (early Eocene Epoch, c. 56–49 million years ago) age which crops out in the southeast of England. The London Clay is well known for its fossil content. The fossils from ...

layer. These were gathered in a single day and had been washed out of the cliffs by the sea.

Roman fort at Reculver

This was established soon after 43 CE, on land which was at that time a mile from the sea, at the north end of the Wantsum channel. The Wantsum once separated Thanet from mainland

, and the fort was probably there to defend the

fleet anchored in the channel. It was rebuilt in the third century CE to protect the coast from

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

longship Longships were a type of specialised Scandinavian warships that have a long history in Scandinavia, with their existence being archaeologically proven and documented from at least the fourth century BC. Originally invented and used by the Nor ...

raids. It was 170 by 180 metres, with three-metre-thick walls with gates, surrounded partly by an earth rampart, and partly by two ditches. The

contained roads, a headquarters building, stores, barracks and a bath-house. It was associated with its own service village and a road to

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of t ...

exhibits found at the

or in the sea nearby include a

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

building block, Belgic ware, redware, an iron clench pin, a barbed

arrowhead An arrowhead or point is the usually sharpened and hardened tip of an arrow, which contributes a majority of the projectile mass and is responsible for impacting and penetrating a target, as well as to fulfill some special purposes such as sign ...

, a funerary urn or poppy beaker, pipe clay figurines, a marble carving, a

ragstone Rag-stone is a name given by some architectural writers to work done with stones that are quarried in thin pieces, such as Horsham Stone, sandstone, Yorkshire stone, and the slate stones, but this is more properly flag or slab work. Near London ...

lamp Lamp, Lamps or LAMP may refer to: Lighting * Oil lamp, using an oil-based fuel source * Kerosene lamp, using kerosene as a fuel * Electric lamp, or light bulb, a replaceable component that produces light from electricity * Light fixture, or ligh ...

stylus A stylus (plural styli or styluses) is a writing utensil or a small tool for some other form of marking or shaping, for example, in pottery. It can also be a computer accessory that is used to assist in navigating or providing more precision ...

es, bone pins, a

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especiall ...

spindle whorl and wall plaster. Anglo Saxon stone carving 015

Anglo-Saxon Reculver

In 669 CE, long after the

was abandoned in the fourth century,

King Egbert Ecgberht (770/775 – 839), also spelled Egbert, Ecgbert, Ecgbriht, Ecgbeorht, and Ecbert, was King of Wessex from 802 until his death in 839. His father was King Ealhmund of Kent. In the 780s, Ecgberht was forced into exile to Charlema ...

granted land to the priest Bassa to build Reculver church. Most of the church was pulled down in 1809 leaving two towers as navigational aids, and sea erosion has removed half of the fort.

finds include a large glass beaker with tears found at Broomfield in 1830, a fifth or sixth century wheel-made pottery bowl known as the ''Marshside Bowl'' found by the son of farmer Jack Harbour, and a large blue glass bead found near Reculver.

Victorian seaside resort history

Penny licks

During the 19th century ice began to be shipped from the

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...

and ice-cream kiosk owners spotted the potential. The first ice-cream cones were glass, and held a penny-worth or "penn'orth" of ice cream. Barrow-men did not have the facilities to wash the glasses properly, so they just wiped them. This resulted in a ban on

penny lick A penny lick was a small glass for serving ice cream, used in London, England, and elsewhere in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Street vendors would sell the contents of the glass for one penny. The glass was usually made ...

s in 1926 for reasons of hygiene.

What-the-butler-saw arcade machine

This mutoscope or What the Butler Saw arcade machine is possibly

Edwardian The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...

. These tourist amusements used a set of flicking cards containing sequential photographs to simulate moving pictures; they were cheap attractions in the entrances to indoor

amusement arcades An amusement arcade (often referred to as a video arcade, amusements or simply arcade) is a venue where people play arcade games, including arcade video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers (such as cl ...

on piers or on the seafront. They tended to contain quaint and voyeuristic flicks: a typical one still in use at

Southend Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...

pier in 1963 had a butler peeping through a keyhole to see his lady employer showing her ankles and voluminous bloomers.

Wall displays

Displays show early photographs of the town as a seaside resort, of local events and of the development of the museum. There is a story about a girl awarded a medal for saving her sister from drowning in the sea. Photographs show the history of the fire brigade, the old bathing station and the clock tower.

Local history

Exhibits include a model of a pumping engine made by the engineer-in-charge and dated 1884 from Ford waterworks, Herne Bay Waterworks Company. There is a decorative seal press used by Herne Bay Urban District Council until 1974, which was used to impress the official seal on documents; the accompanying die is dated 1880s. Some exhibits give coverage of Herne Bay's wartime history, and they include a baby's gas mask, dated 1939. Among social history exhibits there is a

spinning wheel A spinning wheel is a device for spinning thread or yarn from fibres. It was fundamental to the cotton textile industry prior to the Industrial Revolution. It laid the foundations for later machinery such as the spinning jenny and spinnin ...

for wool which is now in disrepair, but its previous repairs reflect the 1950s art-movement revival of spinning and weaving, and that revival features in an exhibit of woven items at

Bradford Industrial Museum Bradford Industrial Museum, established 1974 in Moorside Mills, Eccleshill, Bradford, United Kingdom, specializes in relics of local industry, especially printing and textile machinery, kept in working condition for regular demonstrations to the ...

. This Saxony wheel is accompanied by a lazy kate: a set of spools for hand- plying yarn.

Gallery

The museum holds paintings by local artists Thomas Sidney Cooper and

William Sidney Cooper William Sidney Cooper (1854–1927) was a British landscape artist, best known for his paintings of the countryside around Herne Bay in Kent. Life and work William trained with his Great-Uncle Thomas Sidney Cooper at his School of Art in C ...

who painted sheep and cattle in the countryside around Herne Bay. The Art Gallery has a collection which focuses on local views and on work by artists connected with the area. Workshops involving practising artists and related to the changing special exhibitions programme are planned for schools as a further focus on making art. There was an exhibition of paintings and prints by local artist Paul Mitchell in December 2009.

Exhibitions

There was an exhibition about the colour blue in February and March 2008. An exhibition about the cartoonist Giles took place in summer 2009. The Herne Bay Living History community memories group contributes to some of these exhibitions, and The October–December 2009 exhibition was entitled "Make do and Mend", using local evidence such as photographs and memories, to show how everyday objects were re-used during wartime. Craft activities and quizzes for families take place in association with the exhibitions.Herne Bay Museum and Gallery "Make Do and Mend" leaflet 2009 The permanent Tom Bowes exhibition shows him as a wax model with his collection and books.

Story time and quizzes

There was a "Herne Bay at War" quiz for families from October 2009 to January 2010, and for under-fives there was a story-time hour once a month from January to June in 2009. Image:Penny Lick Glasses 009.jpg,

Penny lick A penny lick was a small glass for serving ice cream, used in London, England, and elsewhere in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Street vendors would sell the contents of the glass for one penny. The glass was usually made ...

glasses Image:Glass beaker from Broomfield 013.jpg,

glass beaker Image:Herne Bay Museum 056.jpg,

pointed

hand axe A hand axe (or handaxe or Acheulean hand axe) is a prehistoric stone tool with two faces that is the longest-used tool in human history, yet there is no academic consensus on what they were used for. It is made from stone, usually flint or ...

s found near Herne Bay Image:Babys gas mask 022.jpg,

baby's

gas mask A gas mask is a mask used to protect the wearer from inhaling airborne pollutants and toxic gases. The mask forms a sealed cover over the nose and mouth, but may also cover the eyes and other vulnerable soft tissues of the face. Most gas mas ...

Image:Model of pumping engine 023.jpg, 1880s model of

waterworks Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavors or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes. Public water supply systems are crucial to properly functioning societies. Th ...

pumping engine Image:Official seal press 025.jpg, Official

seal Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, or "true seal" ** Fur seal * Seal (emblem), a device to imp ...

press Image:Saxony spinning wheel 029.jpg, Saxony

, part of 2009 "Make Do and Mend" exhibition Image:Sharks teeth search boxes 031.jpg, Search boxes containing coarse sand and

sharks' teeth

Projected closure and saving of museum

Projected closure

The museum was under threat of closure as of 2009, pending a decision by

on 18 February 2010. This caused widespread controversy. In the event the Council voted to close the museums in 2011, but said it would fund them for the financial year 2010–2011 whilst working with other organisations to examine ways of keeping the museums open.Liz Crudgington, "Bitter debate over 'realistic' budget", ''Herne Bay Times'' (Kent Messenger), p.7, 25 February 2010

Saving of museum

On 9 December 2010 the ''Herne Bay Times'' announced the saving of the museum, saying that 2,000 fans had fought back and that the Department of Culture and Enterprise had agreed to a rescue plan, as stated by Canterbury City Council's head of culture, Janice McGuinness. This was to be done by charging a £2 entry fee for non-residents; local residents and children would not be charged, although visiting schools would pay fees. There was to be "rationalisation within the service and more involvement with the community without". Dr Tom Bowes 019

References

External links

Herne Bay Museum and Gallery websiteHerne Bay Historical Records Society
(the group which has owned most of the museum exhibits since 1932)
Friends of Herne Bay MuseumCanterbury City Council Online Budget Consultation pageCanterbury City Council Online: Agenda for Exec Committee 21 Jan 2010
(includes link to audio recording of meeting)
Youtube: Unofficial Herne Bay Museum channelCanterbury City Council: Herne Bay Pier report including proposal to demolish and develop Museum site 22 February 2010
(to read report, right click on "Herne Bay Pier report" link to download pdf file) {{DEFAULTSORT:Herne Bay Museum And Gallery Museums in the City of Canterbury Museums established in 1932 History museums in Kent Local museums in Kent Art museums and galleries in Kent 1932 establishments in England Herne Bay, Kent