List of museums in Suffolk

This list of museums in Suffolk, 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.

To use the sortable table, click on the icons at the top of each column to sort that column in alphabetical order; click again for reverse alphabetical order.

Museums

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Name Image Town/City Region Type Summary
Aldeburgh Museum Aldeburgh Suffolk Coastal Local website, located in the 16th century moot hall, local history, culture, trades, industry
Alfred Corry Lifeboat Museum Southwold Waveney Maritime website, home to the former Southwold lifeboat "Alfred Corry", exhibits and artefacts about lifesaving and area maritime history
Amber Shop and Museum Southwold Waveney Natural history website, shop with museum about amber, and amber artefacts, carvings, jewellery and objets d'art
The Apex Bury St Edmunds St Edmundsbury Art website, performing arts centre, includes Apex Art Gallery for contemporary art exhibitions
Bardwell Windmill Bardwell St Edmundsbury Mill Early 19th-century tower windmill
Bawdsey Manor   Bawdsey Suffolk Coastal Military Features the Transmitter Block and "Magic Ear" exhibit about RAF Bawdsey and the radar activities during World War II and the Cold War
Beccles & District Museum Beccles Waveney Local website, local history, culture
Bentwaters Cold War Museum   Woodbridge Suffolk Coastal Military History of RAF Bentwaters in World War II and the Cold War
Brandon Heritage Centre Brandon Forest Heath Local information, local history, culture
Bungay Museum Bungay Waveney Local website, local history, culture
Buttrum's Mill   Woodbridge Suffolk Coastal Mill Mid-19th-century tower windmill
Christchurch Mansion   Ipswich Ipswich Multiple Stately home with fine art, decorative arts in period room displays, toys and dolls
Clare Ancient House Museum   Clare St Edmundsbury Local 14th-15th-century house with exhibits of local history and archaeology
Clifford Road Air Raid Shelter Ipswich Ipswich History World War II underground air raid shelter with period supplies and artefacts
Dunwich Museum Dunwich Suffolk Coastal Local website, local history, culture, story of its decline due to coastal erosion
East Anglia Transport Museum   Carlton Colville Waveney Transportation Historic public transport vehicles including buses, trams and trolleybuses, a narrow gauge railway
Easton Farm Park Easton Suffolk Coastal Farm website
Euston Hall Euston St Edmundsbury Historic house 17th century manor, collection of fine art, park by William Kent and Capability Brown
Felixstowe Museum Felixstowe Suffolk Coastal Multiple Area military and social history, located in Landguard Fort
Flatford: Bridge Cottage   Flatford Babergh Historic house Operated by the National Trust, 16th-century thatched cottage with exhibits about John Constable and his paintings of the area
Framlingham Castle   Framlingham Suffolk Coastal Historic house Operated by English Heritage, 12th-century fortress remains, exhibits about its history
Gainsborough's House   Sudbury Babergh Art Birthplace of artist Thomas Gainsborough, collection of his paintings, drawings and prints, temporary art exhibitions
Greene King Visitor Centre Bury St Edmunds St Edmundsbury Food History, artefacts and shop of the brewery[1]
Halesworth Museum Halesworth Waveney Local website, local history, located in the Halesworth railway station
Haverhill Local History Centre Haverhill St Edmundsbury Local website, local history, located in the Haverhill Arts Centre
Herringfleet Windmill   Herringfleet Waveney Mill Early 19th century smock windmill
HMS Ganges Museum Bures Babergh Maritime website, history and artefacts from the training ships associated with the shore establishment HMS Ganges
Ickworth House, Park & Garden   Bury St Edmunds St Edmundsbury Historic house Operated by the National Trust, country house with collections of paintings, portraits, Regency furniture, Huguenot silver and more, gardens and park
Ipswich Art School Gallery Ipswich Ipswich Art website
Ipswich Maritime Trust Window Museum Ipswich Ipswich Maritime website, window exhibits of town's maritime heritage
Ipswich Museum   Ipswich Ipswich Multiple Archaeology, Roman Britain and Ancient Egypt, local history, natural history, ethnography
Ipswich Transport Museum   Ipswich Ipswich Transportation Area transportation history, includes buses, trams, commercial vehicles, fire apparatus, mobile cranes, bicycles, horse-drawn vehicles, prams and wheelchairs, most manufactured in the area
Kentwell Hall   Long Melford Babergh Historic house Elizabethan stately home and outbuildings with a rare breeds farm and gardens
Landguard Fort   Felixstowe Suffolk Coastal Military Historic fort in use since the 16th century until the 1950s, also includes the Felixstowe Museum
Lanman Museum Framlingham Suffolk Coastal Local https://lanmanmuseum.uk/ website, located at Framlingham Castle, local history, history of the castle, agriculture, social history
Lavenham Guildhall Lavenham Babergh History Operated by the National Trust, medieval guild hall with exhibits on the local cloth industry, farming and agriculture
Laxfield & District Museum Laxfield Mid Suffolk Military information
Little Hall Lavenham Lavenham Babergh Historic house website, 14th century Tudor house
Long Shop Museum   Leiston Suffolk Coastal Industry History of Richard Garrett & Sons a manufacturer of agricultural machinery, steam engines and trolleybuses.
Lowestoft Maritime Museum Lowestoft Waveney Maritime website, maritime artefacts, ship models, marine art, fishing and fishing industry, activities with the Royal Navy in WW II, shipwrights and coopers tools
Lowestoft Museum Lowestoft Waveney Local website, local history, 18th-century Lowestoft Porcelain, fossils, maritime heritage, industries, culture, social history
Lowestoft War Memorial Museum Lowestoft Waveney Military Area military history during World War I and World War II
Martlesham Heath Control Tower Museum Woodbridge Suffolk Coastal Aviation website, history of RAF Martlesham Heath
Mechanical Music Museum at Cotton Cotton Mid Suffolk Music website, collection of automatic musical instruments and cinema memorabilia
Melford Hall   Long Melford Babergh Historic house Operated by the National Trust, stately home reflecting two centuries of family life, ties to Beatrix Potter
Mid-Suffolk Light Railway Museum   Wetheringsett Mid Suffolk Railway Heritage railway and museum with locomotives, artefacts
Mildenhall Museum Mildenhall Forest Heath Local website, local history, natural wildlife, the history of RAF Mildenhall, replicas of the Mildenhall Treasure, archaeology
Mincarlo   Lowestoft Waveney Maritime Sidewinder fishing trawler museum ship
Moyse's Hall Museum   Bury St Edmunds St Edmundsbury Multiple website, local history, culture, clocks and watches, costumes and textiles, fine and decorative arts, Suffolk Regiment gallery
Museum of East Anglian Life   Stowmarket Mid Suffolk Open air Agricultural history of East Anglia, includes Eastbridge Windpump, agriculture machinery, scenes from the 1950s including shops scenes, kitchens, living rooms and a Victorian schoolroom, blacksmith forge, trades, watermill, chapel, carpentry and engineering workshops, steam engines
Museum of Knots and Sailors' Ropework Ipswich Ipswich Maritime website, open by appointment, art and skill of ropeworking
National Horseracing Museum Newmarket Forest Heath Sports History of horse racing in Britain, houses the British Horseracing Hall of Fame and the Vestey Gallery of British Sporting Art
Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum   Flixton Waveney Aviation Historic aircraft, history of RAF Bungay and regimental collections of the units that served there, area aviation history, aviation history and artefacts from World War II
Orford Castle   Orford Suffolk Coastal Historic house Operated by English Heritage, medieval castle keep, houses the Orford Museum's' exhibits of local archaeological artefacts, the castle's history and borough regalia
Pakenham Windmill   Pakenham St Edmundsbury Mill Mid-19th-century tower windmill
Parham Airfield Museum Framlingham Suffolk Coastal Military History of the airfield's activities in World War II, in particular the 390th Bombardment Group and the British Resistance Organisation
Rougham Control Tower Museum Bury St Edmunds St Edmundsbury Military website, restored World War II control tower and Quonset hut with exhibits and memorabilia of RAF Bury St Edmunds
Royal Naval Patrol Service Museum Lowestoft Waveney Maritime website, history of the Royal Naval Patrol Service and their local activities in World War II
Saxmundham Museum Saxmundham Suffolk Coastal Local information, local history, replica of local shops, jail cell, culture exhibits
Saxtead Green Post Windmill   Framlingham Suffolk Coastal Mill Operated by English Heritage, 19th century post windmill
Smith's Row Bury St Edmunds St Edmundsbury Art website, contemporary art gallery
Somerleyton Hall   Somerleyton Waveney Historic house Tudor-Jacobean stately home, gardens
Southwold Lighthouse   Southwold Waveney Maritime Lighthouse museum
Southwold Museum Southwold Waveney Local website, local history, natural history, geology, industries, railway, maritime heritage, archaeology
Southwold Sailors' Reading Room   Southwold Waveney Maritime website, marine art, photos, models and other memorabilia of the local fishermen and sailors
St Edmundsbury Cathedral   Bury St Edmunds St Edmundsbury Multiple Historic cathedral, includes the Edmund Gallery for art exhibits, and the Cathedral Treasures exhibits of religious regalia and artefacts
Sudbury Heritage Centre & Museum Sudbury Babergh Local website, local history
Suffolk Regiment Museum Bury St Edmunds St Edmundsbury Military Regimental uniforms, weapons, artefacts and memorabilia
Suffolk Underwater Studies Museum Orford Suffolk Coastal Maritime website, marine archaeology, items recovered from the ocean, information
Sutton Hoo   Woodbridge Suffolk Coastal Archaeology Operated by the National Trust, artefacts from the ship burial of an Anglo-Saxon king and his most treasured possessions
Thelnetham Windmill   Thelnetham St Edmundsbury Mill Early 19th-century tower windmill
Upthorpe Mill   Stanton St Edmundsbury Mill Mid 18th century post windmill
West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village West Stow St Edmundsbury Open air Recreated Anglo-Saxon village, archaeological artefacts found at the site, exhibits of Anglo-Saxon life and culture
Woodbridge Museum Woodbridge Suffolk Coastal Local information, local history, archaeology, trade, roads, housing, religion and education
Woodbridge Tide Mill   Woodbridge Suffolk Coastal Mill Operational tide mill
Woolpit Museum Woolpit Mid Suffolk Local website, local history, brickmaking, located in a 17th-century cottage

Defunct museums

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Greene King Brewery". Greene King. Retrieved 22 March 2015.
  2. ^ "Cavendish". Suffolk Tourist Guide. Retrieved 22 March 2015. In 1979, the Queen Mother opened the Sue Ryder Foundation Museum in Cavendish, with exhibitions that included Lady Ryder's war uniforms and a reconstruction of her mother's room. Unfortunately the museum is no longer there.
  3. ^ "The Museum". Suffolk Horse Society. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 22 March 2015. Following the end of the lease at the Shire Hall, Woodridge, The Suffolk Heavy Horse Museum has now closed and the contents disbursed following guidelines set out by the Museum's Association.
  4. ^ "Fears over print museum's future". BBC News. 19 February 2004. Retrieved 22 April 2022.