Herne Bay’s local museum, run by volunteers
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?
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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.
The museum is hiring! Although all the work of running the museum is done by volunteers, we’ve reached the point where we need to pay someone to help with the admin side. Please see the brief below on who we’re looking for and how to apply.
Timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the ending of World War 1, our new exhibition reveals a little of the town’s history at the time and the role it played in international events, as well as telling the stories of some of our more prominent townspeople who are buried in the local cemetery.
If you’ve driven from Herne Bay to Canterbury, or along the old Thanet Way from Greenhill towards the Canterbury Road, you will have spotted our local cemetery. On the side of a hill along Canterbury Road, it houses the remains of thousands of former residents of the town. Herne Bay Cemeterians, a group of local volunteers, have recently completed a project to transcribe all of the cemetery’s memorials, and are working to research further into some of the history of the site and its residents.
Our exhibition showcases some of that research, providing fascinating insight into this part of the town’s history, and explaining about the important work the researchers have done and are still carrying out – work that will provide a vital research source for decades and even centuries to come.
There are also two publications available to purchase from the museum written and published by the group.
The Bayfest 2018 event was launched on Saturday, and there are events throughout the month to help keep the children entertained.
Check out the Bayfest booklet, available around the town, or pick up a leaflet from the museum giving more details of our events.
Most events are free, some have a small charge, and some are best booked in advance, as space is limited.
We look forward to meeting you!
Posters for our next photo competition will be going up around town soon! We are looking for photos that show off Natural Herne Bay.
We ask that your photos show some aspect of nature and can be identified as taken somewhere within the area of the Hampton/Reculver/Herne triangle.
Up to three entries per person, to be submitted as prints (preferably A4 landscape size) along with an entry form. Entries to be with the Seaside Museum by 15th January 2019.
Entries will form our January/February exhibition next year, and the top 12 entries (4 chosen by museum volunteers plus 8 chosen by public vote) will form our 2020 calendar.
We can’t wait to see what you come up with!
Our new exhibition is now open to the public – The Red Rover tells the story of the paddle steamer and her sister ship, how she served the town, and how she contributed to the development of the town itself.
It’s a fascinating story, about the first tourists to visit the seaside. The pier was built so they didn’t have to transfer to rowing boats to come ashore, and coaches would take them on to other parts of the county.
Do visit the museum, have a good look around our exhibition and learn something new about our wonderful town!
On Thursday 31st May we have a talk coming up – Herne Bay’s Oysters – Friend or Foe?
Tickets are available from the museum, call in or contact us by phone or email.
