This list of museums in Norfolk, England contains museums which are defined for this context as institutions (including nonprofit organizations, government entities, and private businesses) that collect and care for objects of cultural, artistic, scientific, or historical interest and make their collections or related exhibits available for public viewing. Also included are non-profit art galleries and university art galleries. Museums that exist only in cyberspace (i.e., virtual museums) are not included.
Many of these museums are members of Museums Norfolk (formerly the Museums in Norfolk Group). Museums Norfolk is the representative organisation for museums in the county, and its membership includes museums from both Norfolk Museums Service (NMS) and independent museums. Details of each member museum, opening times and events are given on its website www.museumsnorfolk.org.uk.
Name | Image | Town/City | Region | Type | Summary |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
100th Bomb Group Memorial Museum | Thorpe Abbotts | South Norfolk | Military | History of the 100th Bomb Group at RAF Thorpe Abbotts in World War II | |
389th Memorial Exhibition Museum | Hethel | South Norfolk | Military | website, history of RAF Hethel and the 389th Bombardment Group, open on specific days | |
Ancient House, Thetford | Thetford | Breckland | Local | website, Tudor merchant's house with local history and period rooms displays | |
Barton House Railway | Wroxham | Broadland | Railway | Heritage miniature railway and museum with Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway memorabilia and artefacts | |
Bishop Bonner's Cottage Museum | East Dereham | Breckland | Local | website, local history, archaeology, operated by the Dereham Antiquarian Society | |
Blickling Hall, Gardens and Park | Blickling | Broadland | Historic house | Operated by the National Trust, Jacobean stately home with reflecting four centuries of use, museum about use by RAF Oulton in World War II | |
Blitz and Pieces | Scratby | Great Yarmouth | Military | Life in England (the Home Front) during World War II and Dad's Army | |
Bressingham Steam & Gardens | Bressingham | South Norfolk | Technology | Steam railway engines, tractors and other vehicles | |
Burston Strike School | Burston | South Norfolk | Education | Centre of the longest running strike in British history, between 1914 and 1939 | |
Caister Castle Motor Museum | Caister-on-Sea | Great Yarmouth | Transportation | Fine and rare veteran, vintage, classic, sports and touring automobiles and motorcycles, bicycles, horse-drawn vehicles, pedal cars and other related items | |
Castle Acre Priory | Castle Acre | King's Lynn and West Norfolk | Religious | Operated by English Heritage, history and remains of the medieval priory | |
Charles Burrell Museum | Thetford | Breckland | Industry | Exhibits about Charles Burrell & Sons manufacturers of traction engines, agricultural machinery, steam trucks wagons and tram engines | |
City of Norwich Aviation Museum | Horsham St Faith | Norwich | Aviation | Military and civilian aircraft, history of aviation in Norfolk | |
Clifton House, King's Lynn | King's Lynn | King's Lynn and West Norfolk | Historic house | website, merchant's house with historic interiors dating from the 13th to the 18th centuries, and five-storey Elizabethan tower | |
Collectors World | Downham Market | King's Lynn and West Norfolk | Multiple | Currently closed,[1] includes Magical Dickens Experience with Victorian period street tableaux, photos and equipment of James Lafayette, Aero Museum with aero engines from Rolls-Royce and Armstrong Siddeley, rooms about author Barbara Cartland, Admiral Horatio Nelson, actress Liza Goddard, the 1960s, telephones, horse-drawn carts and carriages, farming and household memorabilia, an old cobblers shop, and antique and unusual dolls | |
Colman's Mustard Shop and Museum | Norwich | Norwich | Food | website, store and museum of Colman's mustard memorabilia | |
County School Station | North Elmham | Breckland | Railway | World War II period station and museum for the Mid-Norfolk Railway | |
Cromer Museum | Cromer | North Norfolk | Local | website, local history, culture, geology, Victorian fisherman's cottage display | |
Custom House, King's Lynn | King's Lynn | King's Lynn and West Norfolk | Maritime | Exhibits about the merchants, customs men and smugglers of Lynn, Horatio Nelson and George Vancouver | |
Dad's Army Museum | Thetford | Breckland | Media/Local | website, exhibits about Dad's Army and its links with Thetford | |
Denver Windmill | Denver | King's Lynn and West Norfolk | Mill | Early 19th-century restored windmill, currently closed | |
Diss Museum | Diss | South Norfolk | Local | website, local history | |
Elizabethan House Museum | Great Yarmouth | Great Yarmouth | Historic house | website, reflects different periods from the Elizabethan to the Victorian eras | |
Fakenham Museum of Gas and Local History | Fakenham | North Norfolk | Industry | website, information, former gasworks used in the manufacture of gas from coal, displays of gas-powered lighting, heating, cooking and domestic equipment | |
Felbrigg Hall | Felbrigg | North Norfolk | Historic house | Operated by the National Trust, 17th-century country house with Jacobean exterior and sumptuous Georgian interior | |
Fishermen's Heritage Centre | Sheringham | North Norfolk | Maritime | website, information, Sheringham's private lifeboats, including the Henry Ramey Upcher, the fishermen who crewed them and the lives they led, Peter Coke Shell Gallery[2] | |
Forncett Industrial Steam Museum | Forncett | South Norfolk | Technology | Collection of large stationary steam engines | |
The Forum | Norwich | Norwich | Art | Includes Fusion, a digital screen gallery for art | |
Great Bircham Windmill | Great Bircham | King's Lynn and West Norfolk | Mill | Mid 19th-century windmill | |
Great Yarmouth Row Houses | Great Yarmouth | Great Yarmouth | Historic house | Operated by English Heritage, early 17th-century merchants' houses later sub-divided into tenements | |
Green Britain Centre | Swaffham | Breckland | Ecology | Green energy (including solar and wind power), transportation options without oil, and organic gardening | |
Green Quay | King's Lynn | King's Lynn and West Norfolk | Multiple | website, environment and natural history of the Ouse Wash, history of shipping and trading | |
Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse | Gressenhall | Breckland | Multiple | website, historic workhouse, heritage farm, agriculture and rural life displays, costumes, steam engines, historic farm machinery and farming implements | |
Gunton Sawmill | Erpingham | North Norfolk | Industrial | website, preserved saw mill in working order owned by the Norfolk Windmills Trust, run by the Norfolk Industrial Archeology society | |
Harleston Museum | Harleston | South Norfolk | Local | https://archive.today/20150317225629/http://www.visiteastofengland.com/Harleston-Harleston-Museum/details/?dms=3&venue=0227282 information], local history | |
Holkham Hall | Holkham | North Norfolk | Multiple | 18th-century Palladian style country house with opulent interiors, walled gardens, Bygones Museum with toys, household implements, agricultural tools, vintage cars and steam engines, and an exhibition on the history of farming | |
Horsey Windpump | Horsey | North Norfolk | Mill | Operated by the National Trust, drainage windmill pump | |
Houghton Hall | Harpley | King's Lynn and West Norfolk | Historic house | 18th-century Palladian-style country house built for Britain's first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole | |
John Jarrold Printing Museum | Norwich | Norwich | History | website, historic printing equipment | |
King's Lynn Arts Centre | King's Lynn | King's Lynn and West Norfolk | Art | website, performing and visual arts centre with galleries | |
Letheringsett Watermill | Letheringsett with Glandford | North Norfolk | Mill | Working early 19th-century watermill | |
Lydia Eva | Great Yarmouth | Great Yarmouth | Maritime | Last surviving steam-powered herring drifter museum ship | |
Lynn Museum | King's Lynn | King's Lynn and West Norfolk | Local | website, local history, archaeology, social history | |
Marshland Maritime Museum | Clenchwarton | King's Lynn and West Norfolk | Military | website, open by appointment only, naval memorabilia | |
Mid-Norfolk Railway | Dereham | Breckland | Railway | Headquarters and museum for the heritage railway | |
Mo Sheringham Museum | Sheringham | North Norfolk | Local | Local history, lifeboats, fishing industry | |
Muckleburgh Collection | Weybourne | North Norfolk | Military | History and memorabilia of RAF Weybourne, Suffolk and Norfolk Yeomanry, naval and civilian ship models, weapons, missiles, tanks, aircraft and other military vehicles | |
Mundesley Maritime Museum | Mundesley | Norwich | Local | website, local maritime heritage and social history | |
Museum of Norwich at the Bridewell | Norwich | Norwich | Local | website, local industries, culture, people's daily lives | |
Museum of Straw Work and Crafts | Colby | North Norfolk | Art | information, items crafted from straw including corn dollies, marquetry, Swiss straw lace, plaits, embroidery, jewellery | |
Museum of the Broads | Stalham | North Norfolk | Local | website, boats, heritage of the Broadland waterways | |
Nelson Museum | Great Yarmouth | Great Yarmouth | Military | Life and naval history of Admiral Horatio Nelson | |
Norfolk Motorcycle Museum | North Walsham | North Norfolk | Transportation | website, motorcycles from the 1920s to the 1960s | |
Norfolk Tank Museum | Forncett | South Norfolk | Military | website, Cold War militaria including Main Battle Tanks, armoured personnel carriers, small arms, military memorabilia and uniforms | |
Norwich Arts Centre | Norwich | Norwich | Art | Performing arts centre with exhibit galleries | |
Norwich Castle | Norwich | Norwich | Multiple | Tours of the castle, dungeon and battlements, exhibits of fine and decorative arts including costume, textiles, jewelry, glass, ceramics and silverware, exhibits of archaeology, Ancient Egypt, natural history, Anglo Saxon and Viking artifacts | |
Norwich Cathedral | Norwich | Norwich | Religious | Visitor centre with exhibits about the cathedral and art exhibits | |
Old Gaol House & Regalia Rooms | Kings lynni | King's Lynn and West Norfolk | Multiple | website, 1930s police station, old jail cells, city treasures and regalia | |
Oxburgh Hall | Oxborough | Breckland | Historic house | Operated by the National Trust, 15th-century moated country house | |
Peter Coke Shell Gallery | Sheringham | North Norfolk | Art | website, sculptures and arrangements formed from seashells from around the world, adjacent to Fishermen's Heritage Centre | |
RAF Air Defence Radar Museum | Horning | North Norfolk | Military | website, located at RAF Neatishead, history of the military radar station in World War II and the Cold War | |
RAF Sculthorpe Heritage Centre | Fakenham | North Norfolk | Military | website, Learn about the stories of East Anglias only USAF Atomic Drop bomb base. | |
RNLI Henry Blogg Museum | Cromer | North Norfolk | Maritime | website, Cromer lifeboat crews and their most famous coxswain Henry Blogg | |
Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum | Norwich | Norwich | Military | Regimental artefacts and memorabilia | |
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts | Norwich | Norwich | Art | Part of the University of East Anglia, collections include modern art, art from Africa, the Pacific, the Americas, Asia, Egypt, medieval Europe and the ancient Mediterranean, Art Nouveau decorative art, abstract and constructivist art, architecture and design | |
Sandringham Estate | Sandringham | King's Lynn and West Norfolk | Historic house | Private home of the British Royal Family, includes late 19th-century house with furnishings, Sandringham Museum with royal collection of gifts, vehicles, ceramics, photographs and memorabilia | |
Seething Control Tower Museum | Seething | South Norfolk | Military | website, located at Seething Airfield, history of the 448th Fighter-Bomber Group at RAF Seething in World War II | |
Shell Museum | Glandford | North Norfolk | Natural history | website, seashells, fossils, birds' eggs, agate ware, local archaeological finds | |
Stow Mill | Paston | North Norfolk | Mill | website, early 19th-century windmill | |
Stalham Firehouse Museum | Stalham | Norwich | Firefighting | website | |
Strangers' Hall | Norwich | Norwich | Historic house | Tudor and Stuart period rooms | |
Strumpshaw Hall Steam Museum | Strumpshaw | Broadland | Technology | Steam traction engines, rollers, a wagon and a showman's engine | |
Swaffham Museum | Swaffham | Breckland | Local | website, local history and culture | |
Thursford Collection | Thursford | North Norfolk | Technology | Steam engines, organs and fairground attractions | |
Time and Tide: The Museum of Great Yarmouth Life | Great Yarmouth | Great Yarmouth | Maritime | Area fishing, shipbuilding and other maritime trades, merchant trade and lifesaving, herring fishing and curing | |
Toad Hole Cottage | How Hill | North Norfolk | Local | website, information, home and working life on the marshes of The Broads in the early 20th century | |
The Tolhouse | Great Yarmouth | Great Yarmouth | Prison | website, 12th-century medieval former merchant's house turned into a prison | |
True's Yard Fisherfolk Museum | King's Lynn | King's Lynn and West Norfolk | Maritime | website, exhibits about the historic fishing community | |
Walsingham Abbey Grounds and Shirehall Museum | Walsingham | North Norfolk | Religious | website, ruins of the medieval abbey, museum with exhibits on the abbey and local history | |
Whitwell & Reepham Railway Station | Reepham | Broadland | Railway | Historic railway station under restoration | |
William Marriott Museum | Holt | North Norfolk | Railway | Railway artefacts of the North Norfolk Railway | |
Wolterton Hall | Erpingham | North Norfolk | Historic house | Restored Georgian country house and park | |
Wymondham Heritage Museum | Wymondham | South Norfolk | Local | Local history, culture, former prison, police station and courthouse | |
Wymondham Station | Wymondham | South Norfolk | Railway | Features collection of railway memorabilia |
Defunct museums
edit- Dragon Hall, Norwich, closed to visitors in 2015[3]
- Fenland Aviation and West Norfolk Museum, near Walsoken, closed to visitors in October 2022.[4]
- Iceni Village & Museums, Cockley Cley, reconstruction of the type of village occupied by a British tribe, the Iceni, closed in 2014[5]
- Inspire Discovery Centre, Norwich, closed in 2011[6]
- Litcham Village Museum, Litcham[7]
- Norfolk's Golden Fleece Heritage Museum, Worstead
- Town House Museum, King's Lynn, closed in 2011[8]
- Yesterday's World, Great Yarmouth, closed in 2014[9]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Collectors World of Eric St John-Foti a tourist attraction in Downham Market, Norfolk, to visit | tourUK.co.uk". Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 26 February 2013. Tour UK
- ^ "Peter Coke Shell Gallery". Sheringham Society. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
- ^ "Visit". Dragon Hall. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
Dragon Hall is now closed to visitors. On 1 April 2015 the Writers' Centre, Norwich will be moving into Dragon Hall.
- ^ "end of an era". www.fenlandcitizen.co.uk. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
- ^ "Iceni Centre, formerly the Iceni Village, closes despite attempted revival". Watton & Swaffam Times. 15 July 2014. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
- ^ "Norwich Inspire Discovery Centre to close this weekend". Eastern Daily Press. 23 March 2011. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
- ^ "Litcham Museum". Litcham. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
The Litcham Museum is located at Fourways on the Mileham Road IT IS NOW CLOSED TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC
- ^ "Town House Museum". Maritime Heritage East. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
This Museum was closed in 2011
- ^ "Closure of Yesterday's World – Great Yarmouth". Yesterday's World. 12 November 2014. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2015.