Horsham Museum
Horsham Museum features a selection of permanent and temporary display areas, documenting the history and development of the local area throughout the years.
Permanent exhibitions include an Art Gallery, a Crime and Punishment exhibition focusing upon the revolutionary Horsham Gaol from 1775, and a Fossils and Flints exhibition featuring bones from the Great Horsham Iguanodon.
The Museum features the Medieval objects discovered in the 'Horsham Hoard', discovered in Horsham's West Street in 1867. These historic items help to paint a fascinating picture of what Medieval life was like in our area.
Fast forwarding through to a slightly more modern era, the 'Town Changes' gallery tells the story of the regeneration of Horsham District that took place from 1988 to 1992. The display features a selection of images showing the transformation, as well as the architects model that showcases the 'vision for the future' outlined back in the 1980s.
The purpose of Horsham Museum is to dedicate a learning environment to the local history and culture of the region. Objects showcasing the music, sport, gardening, photography and cooking in the region help to show the daily lives of Horshamites of times gone by. In the museum shop you can even purchase the original Horsham Gingerbread recipe, something we very strongly recommend! As a Horsham Estate Agent, we are so proud of the work that Horsham Museum do to educate, inform and interest the people of Horsham with all of the rich history that our local area has to offer.
Upstairs, the wonders of Horsham Museum continue. The 'Cabinet of Curiosities' displays what life was like before Museums, showing how wealthy collectors would display their collections of objects and wonders from across the globe. The Horsham Cabinet of Curiosities contains a narwhal horn, items from the Roman and Egyptian eras, as well as other archaeological finds that would have been mysterious to the 16th century viewers who would have enjoyed the cabinet of curiousities.
One of the most popular displays within Horsham Museum is the Costume Gallery, home to over 3,000 items of clothing spanning from the 1670s through to the modern day. This display is next to the Craft Gallery, showing the best that the Horsham tradespeople had to offer in terms of ceramics, glassware, tapestries, woodworking, and a large selection of grandfather clocks!
One of the main themes of the Horsham Museum is focusing upon the daily life of the residents of Horsham throughout the ages. The Ethnography Gallery displays a range of objects collected by Horsham residents on their travels throughout Asia, Europe and the US, whilst the Domestic Life Gallery focuses on the more everyday activites such as toys, games and tools.
Horsham has been home to many writers and poets throughout the years that have made strong contributions to the literary world. 'The Written Word' exhibition contains a selection of books, manuscripts and ephemera that relates to Horsham's current and past contributions to the written word.
Dedicated to one of Victorian Horsham's most notable residents, the Honywood Gallery details the life of Captain Thomas Honywood, a famed inventor, photographer, archaeologist and the Captain of the Horsham Volunteer Fire Brigade during the 19th Century.
In one of the outside exhibitions if the 'Blazing Saddles' display, which has at its centrepiece the 1868 Shand Fire Engine, one of the two fire engines used in Victorian Horsham. Additionally in this display is a collection of 15 notable historic bicycles, such as the 'Pentacycle' developed by Horsham architect Edward Burstow.
The Horsham Museum garden is a lovely, tranquil spot just a stones throw away from the town centre. The garden features a wide array of colourful plants, as well as local milestones, two parish boundary stones, a bronze by J G Millais, a cauldron, and a plinth with a sundial.
For more information on Horsham Museum, please visit their website.
