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Photographic competition 2022

The theme for our next photographic competition and exhibition is “Herne Bay Through the Year”, and we can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Deadline for entries is 21 March 2022, for an exhibition from 2 April to 14 May. All photos entered will be on display, and visitors will have a chance to vote for their favourites for the next calendar.

Entries should be submitted as A4 landscape prints please, and the file kept for submission if your photo is one selected for the calendar/postcards.

We’ve had some fantastic entries over the past few years, and would love to see more junior entries as well as adult ones – why not encourage younger family members to try their hand and explore our town for interesting images?

Photographic competition 2020

Do you have 2020 vision? Why not use it to support our next photographic competition and exhibition?

The theme for the next one is “Built in Herne Bay”, and we can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Deadline for entries is 7th January 2020, for an exhibition from 18th January. All photos entered will be on display, and visitors will have a chance to vote for their favourites for the next calendar.

Entries should be submitted as A4 landscape prints please, and the file kept for submission if your photo is one selected for the calendar/postcards.

We’ve had some fantastic entries over the past few years, and would love to see more junior entries as well as adult ones – why not encourage younger family members to try their hand and explore our town for interesting images?

This competition has now ended.
The 2021 calendar is now available.

Thanks for the photos (and votes!)

Last week it was time to say goodbye to the 2019 photography competition exhibits, as all the pictures were taken down and the votes counted.

This was our most successful competition and exhibition yet, with 62 total photos from 24 photographers – some familiar names and some new to us.
You all supported the exhibition by voting as well, with 226 voting slips submitted, giving a total of 1064 votes (we allowed 5 votes per slip, but not everyone used all of theirs!).

The top 12 photos will be made into a calendar for 2020, which will be available from our shop in late summer, so if your name is on the winner’s list we’ll be in touch to ask for the photo files please. Congratulations to all photographers whose photos were chosen – they’ll all be thanked with a free calendar once they’re available. The volunteer’s choice photographers also receive five free postcards featuring their photo.

A big thank you to all who supported the museum either by submitting photos or coming along to view and place votes.

THE TOP TWELVE
Herne Bay Pier at Sunset, by Colin Winch – Volunteer’s Choice
Colourful Beach Huts, by John Newell – Volunteer’s Choice
A Bird’s Eye View, by John Holland – Volunteer’s Choice
Reculver Morn, by Colin Winch
Shadows on the Beach, by Peter Riley
Snowed Inn at Hampton, by Barry Mount
Dusk Descends over Hampton Pier, by Steve Roberts
An Evening Stroll, by Peter Riley
Golden Day, by Eileen Wilkinson
Social Gathering on the Seawall, by Volker Jöttkandt
Sunset Flight, by Gemma Witts
Nature on the Beach, by Michael Langman

Next year’s photo exhibition will be on the theme Built in Herne Bay, with entry forms and Terms and Conditions available from our website.

The deadline for entries will be 7th January 2020, ready for the exhibition from the 18th January.

Pudding Pan, a Romano-British Shipwreck and its cargo in context

For more than 300 years, fishermen working in the outer Thames estuary have recovered Roman artefacts from an area known as Pudding Pan, the only sea area believed to have been named after archaeological discoveries. Numerous attempts have been, and are being, made to locate the source of the material, yet this elusive site remains undiscovered. Despite this, the stamped samian assemblage has been a central reference point for dating late 2nd century AD samian groups and thereby sites throughout the Empire over the past 100 years.
The assemblage, comprising more than 600 artefacts (mostly complete plain samian vessels), has been thoroughly re-assessed to determine the nature and location of the site. Samian, transported in huge quantities throughout the Empire, is one of the key indicators of the widespread cultural reception of Rome. The assemblage appears to represent part of a cargo from a Roman trading ship, either jettisoned or wrecked en route from France to Britain between AD 180 and 200. This site-type is extremely rare throughout the Roman Empire and its discovery could contribute a new perspective on the organisation of trade.

Find out more on Friday April 26th at 6.30pm at our talk, to be held at the Junior School, King’s Road, Herne Bay.

Photographic exhibition now open

We had a fantastic range of photos entered for our photographic exhibition and competition, possibly our biggest set so far, and they’re all on display in our front gallery. Come and admire them, and vote for your favourites to join the volunteer choices in our 2020 calendar, available from the museum shop from later summer onwards.

The last few of our 2019 calendars are still available at a reduced rate while stocks last.

Next year’s theme will be on architecture in and around Herne Bay (the Hampton/Reculver/Herne triangle). Why not take a wander around the town and see what gems you can spot?

Setting up the exhibition gallery with all the photo entries.

It’s changeover week!

Changeover week for the museum means that while the regular galleries are open as usual, the exhibition gallery is closed while the volunteers prepare for the next exhibition. This time round, it means we’ll be busy framing and hanging the photo entries for the Natural Herne Bay photographic exhibition and competition.

From Saturday, you’ll be invited in to look round the collection of stunning photographs and vote for your favourites. We’ll be putting the top 12 in a calendar for next year.

The photography deadline is approaching fast!

Our next photography exhibition and competition, Natural Herne Bay, is very nearly here! All photos should be in to the museum by the end of next Tuesday, 15th January, please. You may submit up to 3 photos, preferably on A4 photographic paper. If you don’t have the facilities to print at home, then The Studio in Mortimer Street should be able to help, or the booth in Boots will print up to around A5 size (but please make sure your photo file is of good enough quality to print to A4 in case it’s chosen for our calendar!).

Entry forms and the full Terms and Conditions are available from here.

The exhibition will be available to see from 2nd February to 31st March, and during this time you will be able to vote for your favourites for our 2020 calendar.

Limited numbers of the 2019 calendar, featuring Leisure and Pleasure in Herne Bay, are on sale in the museum shop, subject to availability.

To stay up to date with museum events, why not subscribe to this blog?

Gifts for children

Looking for something different for children this Christmas? Did you know that there are books available from the museum shop written especially for children of around 6-7 to read for themselves? Written by a local author in collaboration with two teachers, these tell stories of a family of mice who live in the museum and have adventures around the town.

One book is of winter stories, including charming illustrations of our famous post box toppers, and the other has summer stories.

The Museum Mice of Herne Bay (summer stories) and The Museum Mice in Winter (winter stories)

Call in and see what else is available in our shop, including our 2019 calendar featuring photos taken by local photographers and chosen during our exhibition earlier in the year.

Christmas Raffle Time!

Tickets are now available at the museum for our Christmas raffle! Come and get your chance to win one of a range of great prizes. Why not pop in and look around our new exhibition while you’re there?

To keep up to date with the latest news and events from the museum, why not subscribe to our website? Enter your email on our website and you’ll receive notification of any new post made.

Can you help the museum?

While our shop and main museum are open as usual this week, our exhibition room is closed until the weekend, as volunteers bustle around taking down the cemetery exhibition and setting up our next display, The Art of the Original Print, which opens on Saturday 1st December.

The museum is run entirely by volunteers, who carry out tasks including taking a shift in the museum and shop, working on marketing, organising special events and talks, and the thousand and one other tasks around running a museum – and that’s before you even start to think about organising exhibitions and displays!

We’d love to have more people on the team – the more people involved, the less the load on any individual, and after all, the museum is run for the benefit of the town.

In particular, at the moment we’re looking for someone who’s able to take on odd jobs around the building. Maybe you’re recently retired and looking for something to keep you involved in the town – or you know someone who would fit the bill!

But whatever you think you can help with, we’d love to hear from you. Please pop into the  museum to meet us for a chat, or email or phone for more information.