Museums

North Norfolk is a unique part of Great Britain with a wealth of exciting heritage attractions and museums.

There's something for everyone, whether you're interested in local history, the Broads, maritime heritage, lifeboats, motorbikes, steam railways, vintage tractors, agricultural machinery, military vehicles, windmills, air defence, gas works, Worstead spinning and weaving or shells!

So take time to explore North Norfolk's museums, you'll find them surprising, interesting, rewarding and fun.

For general enquiries about North Norfolk's museums, please contact the Area Museum's Officer, Jamie Everitt.
Telephone: 01263 513543
Email: Jamie.Everitt@north-norfolk.gov.uk

Please choose a museum from the list below:

Bygones Museum at Holkham
The Bygones Museum at Holkham holds a large collection of social, agricultural and domestic artefacts, mainly dating from the Victorian period to the mid 1900s. A vast collection of social, domestic and agricultural memorabilia. Over 4,000 fascinating exhibits ranging from mechanical toys, vintage cars to some very rare steam engines dating from the Victorian period to the mid 1900s.

The Cat Pottery and Railway Junkyard
An intriguing collection of transport memorabilia and a variety of rare local items housed in workshops in North Walsham which have been in continuous use since 1840. They are now used to make life-like hand made pottery cats sold all over the world. This is a chance to see a type of working atmosphere that belongs to 1900.

Cromer Museum
Stand in the yard outside a row of fishermen's cottages and imagine what life might have been like one hundred years ago. Discover a lost world lit by gaslight. A world of steam railways; bathing machines and the beautiful, but lonely Empress of Austria. In the new geology gallery find out about the huge creatures that roamed this landscape before humans even existed!

Fakenham Museum of Gas and Local History
The only surviving town gasworks in England and Wales, complete with all equipment used for the manufacture of gas from coal: retorts, condenser, purifiers, meter, gasholder. Displays of lighting, heating, cooking and domestic equipment.

Fisherman's Heritage Centre
The centre is housed in part of original Victorian long-shore fishermen's sheds, newly restored and opened to the public. It tells the story of the private (i.e. non-RNLI) lifeboats, the fishermen who crewed them and the lives they led. The last of these lifeboats, the Henry Ramey Upcher, may still be seen, housed in its original shed.

Muckleburgh Collection
The largest privately owned military collection in Great Britain. Home to a collection of tanks from all over the world, working wartime radio sets, miniature aircraft, tank and train models, Suffolk and Norfolk Yeomanry militaria, display and propaganda from Operation Desert Storm, wartime memorabilia and much more.

Museum of the Broads
The museum is situated on the site of an ancient Norfolk Wherry loading quay with car parking and boat mooring for visitors. An exhibition of Broads history and boat design through the centuries. Also items associated with the leisure and working life of Broadland.

Museum of Straw Work
Fascinating straw work from all over the world. Corn dollies of vast variety and many other wonderful ways of using straw such as marquetry, embroidery, Swiss straw lace. Quilling and straw work demonstrated.

Mundesley Maritime Museum
Situated in the former Coastguard lookout, the museum exhibits include the village past and present; its maritime history; lifeboat activity from 1811; shipwrecks; fishing; trade; the rise and fall of the railway 1898-1964; the Mundesley Minefield.

Norfolk Motorcycle Museum
Over 100 motorcycles dating from 1920s to the mid 1960s, including some rare models. Also around 100 old bicycles dating from 1899 to the 1950s and die cast toys from the thirties to fifties.

Norfolk Shire Horse Centre
Heavy horses demonstrated working daily in the morning and afternoon. Small farm animals and children's entertainment on the Kiddies Corner. Feeding times. Mares and foals. Indoor demonstration area for wet weather. Museum of horse drawn bygones. Video room, café, shop and picnic area. Free cart rides for children. Free Maize Maze from mid July onwards.

Norfolk's Golden Fleece Heritage Museum
Housed in a 19th century Baptist Chapel, displays cover spinning, weaving and dyeing which were so important in Norfolk (and this area in particular) prior to the Industrial Revolution. It is normally possible to visit the "Weaver's Loft" where members of the Worstead Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers have work in progress.

The Peter Coke Shell Gallery
The gallery in Sheringham contains a unique collection of more than 150 sculptures and arrangements formed from seashells from around the world.

The Poppy Line / North Norfolk Railway
A heritage railway and working museum rolled into one! A 5½ mile ride from Sheringham along the coast to Weybourne and up through the heathland to Holt. The William Marriott Museum is to be opened at Holt during 2006. Here you will be able to discover how the railways have influenced life in North Norfolk for more than 120 years.

RAF Air Defence Radar Museum
Royal Air Force Air Defence Radar Museum. An all weather award winning attraction presenting the History of Radar and Air Defence from 1935 to date. Housed in original 1942 Radar building. Features Battle of Britain; 1942-The Blitz; Cold War Operations Room in use until 1993 and Space Defence. Plus 12 additional display rooms. Free 2 hour guided tour.

RNLI Henry Blogg Museum
This new Museum opened in Spring 2006 and houses the WWII Watson Class lifeboat, HF Bailey together with items relating to over 200 years of Cromer Lifeboats. Henry Blogg's dog, Monte, leads younger visitors through the story. The displays include interactive, touch and feel, video footage and personal items from the Cromer lifeboat crews including medals, certificates and ganseys.

The Shell Museum
Sir Alfred Jodrell built this charming Victorian museum for his unique collection of sea shells and artefacts. But there are other exhibits besides the shells, jewels, old pottery, a sugar bowl used by Queen Elizabeth I and an evocative tapestry depicting the North Norfolk coast by a local fisherman, John Craske.

Sheringham Museum
Sheringham Museum is located in converted fishermen's cottages and wash houses in the heart of this attractive and popular North Norfolk seaside town. The entrance to the museum is up an alley next to Harvey's Dry Cleaners in Station Road. Sheringham Museum offers a wide range of displays including: the fishing and holiday industries, boat building, war years, the Weybourne elephant.

Stalham Firehouse Museum
A tiny building housing the second oldest firehouse in the country. Now with many old photographs and artefacts and an original 1902 horse drawn fire engine.

Thursford Collection
Our 'Treasures in Store' museum houses majestic old road steam engines, mechanical organs, Wurlitzer organ and old-fashioned fairground carousels. Live Wurlitzer shows and music from mechanical pipe organs. Traditional Norfolk farm buildings have been transformed into a small village with a touch of Charles Dickens' England.

Toad Hole Cottage
Small eighteenth century cottage set in the beautiful How Hill nature reserve, showing home and working life on the marshes about a hundred years ago. Nature trail walks and boat trips available.

Walsingham Shirehall Museum
Originally part of the outer precinct of the Priory, the quarter sessions were established here in the mid eighteenth century. The courthouse was closed in 1970 and is now a hands on museum. The museum has a comprehensive display on Walsingham as a place of pilgrimage since 1061, as well as local artefacts and photographs.