- Wikidata identifier:
- Q15921706
- Instance of:
- local museum; charitable organization; independent museum
- Museum/collection status:
- Accredited museum
- Accreditation number:
- 686
- Persistent shareable link for this record:
- https://museumdata.uk/museums/q15921706/
Collection-level records:
-
Collection history (Collection development policy)
Founded in 1914 on its present site on premises leased from Bexhill Corporation. Bexhill Museum’s original collection drew heavily on donations from British colonial era travellers and officials. In style and content, the Museum was strongly influenced by its second curator Henry Sargent, who led the museum between 1920 until his death in 1983. It was governed from 1923 by the Bexhill Museum Association, which registered as a charity in 1983.
The Bexhill Museum of Costume and Social History developed from a temporary exhibition in the Manor Gardens, Bexhill Old Town, to mark the 1,200th anniversary of the town in 1972. The exhibition proved so popular that it continued to be displayed each summer. Ownership of the collection was transferred in 1990 to the Bexhill Museum of Costume and Social History Association, a registered charity.
From 1999 the two associations worked to develop a single integrated museum at the Bexhill Museum site. To further this process in 2004 the two bodies amalgamated to form the Society of Bexhill Museums Ltd, a charitable limited company. With funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund the building was subsequently expanded to accommodate both museum collections and reopened on 31 July 2009. The charity was reconstituted in 2021 to take account of changes to UK charity laws since 2004, and its legal name adjusted to Bexhill Museum.
Source: Collection development policy
Date: 2023
Licence: CC BY-NC
-
Collection overview (Collection development policy)
The museum consists of four galleries: motoring & technology heritage, costume, fashion & social history, a new WWII heritage space with a popular model railway depicting the town in 1940, funded by Museum patron Eddie Izzard. The original gallery, now named for Henry Sargent, features archaeology, natural history, local history, ethnography, geology, and palaeontology. The museum also includes an Education Room with AV equipment, plus a reception space, shop, small cafe and is very well-equipped for disabled visitors.
Source: Collection development policy
Date: 2023
Licence: CC BY-NC