Collection: Canterbury Museums and Galleries

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  Canterbury’s Museum Service began in 1825 in the Philosophical and Literary Institution in Guildhall Street. Under the Museums Act of 1845 it became the first local authority museum in Kent in 1846. The Service, now operated under the 1964 Libraries & Museums Act, has since 1974 been a district-wide provision with museums in Canterbury and since 1985 in Whitstable, and since 1996 at Herne Bay.

  In Canterbury the Museum outgrew its Guildhall Street site and the bequest of Dr Beaney provided for the move to its current premises on the High Street. It opened here as the Royal Museum in 1899. The Slater family bequest allowed for the addition of the art gallery in 1934.

  The Royal Museum was revitalized through a capital project to restore and extend the building including the art museum. The new Beaney opened in September 2012 as the Beaney, House of Art and Knowledge. Collections on site cover Art, Ethnography, Natural History and some Archaeology.

  Canterbury Heritage Museum was opened in 1986 with collections covering the history of the city and prominent children’s characters Bagpuss and Rupert Bear, the creators of which lived in Canterbury.

  In March 2017, following extensive public consultation, a decision was made to repurpose the Poor Priests’ Hospital, where the museum is housed, to enable a larger and wider audience to benefit from using both the building and the collections.

  From September 2017 the Marlowe Theatre managed the building, working in partnership with the Museums & Galleries Service who continued to be the custodians of the collection. The Marlowe Theatre operated the building under a lease agreement with Canterbury City Council and a collections loan agreement governed use of the collections.

  Some key objects and displays such as the children’s collection and Anglo Saxon Kingdom of Kent were re-located to the Beaney and they are enjoyed by many more visitors.

  From 2022 the decision was made to turn the building entirely over to the Marlowe Theatre and the collection has gradually been removed to storage and some to the Beaney. The process will be completed by mid 2024.

  The Westgate Tower was opened as a museum in 1906, mainly to house military collections. In 2013 the running of the museum was handed over to an independent provider, but Canterbury City Council retain ownership of the collections on display.

  Canterbury Roman Museum on Butchery Lane was built around the remains of a Roman townhouse which features a Scheduled Ancient Monument of a mosaic pavement and hypocaust system which were uncovered by the Blitz. The museum and opened in 1994.

  In 2013 the management of Herne Bay Museum was transferred to a local community trust, the Herne Bay Museum Trust whilst the same business model was applied to Whitstable Museum in 2017. In both cases Canterbury City Council retains ownership of the collections and provides a Museum Mentor to these community trusts.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2023

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  The Beaney

  The Buffs Regimental Museum

  This collection has been transferred by its trustees to the ownership of the National Army Museum. The items which remain on display at The Beaney are loaned by the National Army Museum and managed jointly with Canterbury Museums and Galleries.

  Thomas Sidney Cooper

  The collection of work by this significant Victorian artist is recognised as of national importance. It includes pictures, prints, drawings and related items given or bequeathed by the artist’s family, other donations acquisitions made by Canterbury City Council supported through external grant-aid.

  The Fine and Decorative Art Collection

  The fine art collection, partly on display and partly for reference in reserve, includes the De Zoete gift and bequest of English and European portraits and landscapes; Dr Beaney’s bequest of British and Australian paintings; the Ingram Godfrey gift of Old Master drawings by Guardi and Tiepolo, and European prints including by Canaletto; various donors’ gifts of English watercolours, prints and drawings; and a large topographical collection documenting Canterbury, the Cathedral and surrounding areas.

  Recent collecting themes include the work of artists connected with East Kent either by birth or association, by theme or commission. Some notable works have been acquired – for example by Anthony van Dyck, Cornelius Johnson, Ben Marshall, John Opie, James Ward, Thomas Hudson, Lucien Pissarro, Walter Sickert, Laura Knight, Roger de Grey, Carel Weight, John Piper, and John Ward.

  There are paintings, drawings and prints relating to Chaucer’s Canterbury Pilgrims, and to themes with local connections such as hop-picking.

  Sculpture is a special interest, in part because of the city’s history and the existence of patrons from Roman times, and especially the ready market created by the cathedral, abbey, churches and other religious buildings continuing through to the later 19^th century. Among locally-born sculptors are John Frend in the 18^th century and Henry Weekes, RA in the 19^th.

  The collection of decorative arts includes a fine range of English and Continental ceramics, some English glass, the Viscount Strangford collection of Greek marbles and ceramics, ancient Egypt, English small sculpture in stone and bronze including 3D pieces and medallions from the Renaissance through to the 20^th century, English jewellery and accessories.

  The Natural World

  Parts of this collection are on display in the Beaney, but the greater part is a reference collection in reserve. The collection includes Pleistocene and other fossils from the local area, fossils from outside the area which provide context, minerals and rocks, Hammond collection of British birds, with related printed catalogue and 17 volumes of watercolours by Hammond of the birds in natural settings, bird and egg collections from local and foreign areas, insects including butterflies which are mostly local, fish which are mostly local including the Fordwich Trout and shells including foreign ones.

  World Cultures

  The Museum was founded in 1825 and benefited from the early interest in collecting items from across the world, classifying them and making them available as part of widening awareness and education. Included are the collection made by the missionary and explorer Henry Lansdell. Many of these Collections which were brought to Canterbury by intrepid explorers and collectors are now on display in a new gallery at the Beaney.

  Anglo Saxon Kent

  The museum has a great many archaeological finds from the period of the Anglo Saxon kingdom of Kent and after. Many of these, including exceptional objects such as the Canterbury Pendant are displayed in the Beaney’s Explorers and Collectors Gallery. The Canterbury Cross will soon be moving to the Beaney displays too.They reflect the exploration by early archaeologists of their own County.

  Smallfilms

  From 2020 a new family gallery opened at the Beaney showcasing the design, development and characters of the Smallfilms collection which was created in Canterbury by Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate, including Bagpuss, the Clangers and other Oliver Postgate/Peter Firmin creations.

  Canterbury Roman Museum

  The Museum is located around the remains of a Roman villa in Butchery lane. It details life in the city during the Roman period. Particular display themes are:

  • The villa’s mosaic floor
  • Building the city
  • Marketplace, including jewellery and food
  • Household Gods
  • Death and burial
  • Roman glass
  • Theatre and baths
  • End of empire

  West Gate Towers

  The building is the last of the city’s fortified gatehouses, rebuilt about 1380. It is a scheduled ancient monument and grade I listed building owned by the Council, but leased to The Pound Ltd as the delivery partner for Canterbury City Council who will open the site to the public. The leaseholders open the Westgate Tower Museum to the public as a condition of the lease. The building has limited space and limited environmental controls reflected in the current displays which focus on:

  • The building and the theme of the Defenders of Canterbury (which includes World War 2 when the gate was used as a look-out post and Special Constable station)
  • Weapons
  • The building’s use as a prison and part of former police station
  • City walls and gates

  Herne Bay Museum and Gallery

  The Canterbury Museums and Galleries Collection comprises approx.1000 items which have been acquired since 1997. Since May 2015 the Herne Bay Museum Trust has been Canterbury City Council’s delivery partner which manages Herne Bay Museum Trust. The collection is still owned by CCC, but the Trust is now the delivery partner and manages all aspects of the running of the museum with advice from a professional mentor. Collecting will still be carried out with advice from the Canterbury Museums and Galleries team. The main focus will be on key aspects of the town’s history. Among these are:

  • Pleistocene, Tertiary and other fossils
  • Archaeology including the Roman fort and Saxon church at Reculver
  • The development of the 19^th century planned town
  • The piers, pier theatre and roller hockey
  • Sea-bathing, seaside holidays, beach huts
  • Entertainment including Punch & Judy
  • Coastal sports and recreation including sea-angling, wind and kite surfing, coastal rowing
  • World War Two including the Barnes Wallis bouncing bomb trials at Reculver
  • Local topography
  • Local photographers including the Scrivens family
  • Locally linked artists including WTM Hawksworth
  • Oral history
  • Flood, especially the 1953 East Coast storm
  • Hampton Oyster Fishery Company

  Whitstable Museum

  The inherited collections came from a trust formed to set up a town museum that opened in 1985. From mid 2017 the Whitstable Community Museum Trust has been Canterbury City Council’s delivery partner and is responsible for managing the museum. The Council retains ownership of the collections and provides a Museum Mentor to these community trusts. Canterbury Museums and Galleries’ Collections Manager continues to be involved in decisions regarding acquisitions. The main focus is on key aspects which differentiate this Museum from that at Herne Bay and the other towns in the area. Among these themes are:

  • 1953 Flood
  • Local fossil material, including Mammoth
  • Ship building and related industries such as sailmaking and Olympic yachting
  • Ship pictures, souvenirs from journeys, trading links
  • Roman wreck finds from Pudding Pan Sands
  • Graveney boat
  • Oyster cultivation and exploitation
  • Fishing including whelks
  • Historic helmet diving and links to the Mary Rose. Whitstable involvement in the development of contemporary scuba
  • Seashore and estuary wildlife
  • Canterbury & Whitstable Railway
  • Harbour
  • Shopping in the town and its recent attraction to outsiders
  • Seaside holiday town, souvenirs
  • Fire brigade
  • Wartime
  • Local heroes, celebrities and links including Peter Cushing and Oliver Postgate
  • Local photographers including a particular intention to collect one of Douglas West’s plate cameras
  • Locally linked artists, especially new upcoming artists whose work relates to the local area, or our collections.

  Oral history. The museum has developed an excellent resource in this area that relates to core topics and complements the Douglas West photographic collection.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2023

  Licence: CC BY-NC