Horsham Museum and Art Gallery

Horsham Museum and Art Gallery stands in Causeway House, a Grade II* listed building in the centre of Horsham, West Sussex. The museum moved to this site in 1941 after earlier collections were kept in the basement of Park House. It occupies the whole of the Causeway House site and includes an archive building, a library and a restored garden. The garden was once derelict but was brought back to life by a project led by Sylvia Standing. In 2007 the garden won the Community Services Gold Award in the Horsham in Bloom competition. The museum holds eighteen galleries filled with varied collections. Among its holdings are many early editions of works by the Warnham-born poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and letters from the wider Shelley circle. It also owns prints by local artist John Guille Millais, including a sculpture of fighting game birds. Other displays cover ceramics, ethnography, Sussex trades, geology, archaeology, bicycles and horses. A notable part of the museum’s holdings is the William Albery archive of documents about Horsham’s history. Visitors find the restored garden a peaceful place to walk among the displays. The museum’s collections include a large poster archive conserved with help from a Heritage Lottery Fund grant. Edward Bainbridge Copnall’s sculpture of the Crucifixion, made of coal dust and resin, is also on show. The Curator’s Library holds over two thousand books on the museum’s collections, available for consultation. The museum serves Horsham and its district with support from the Friends of Horsham Museum and many volunteers.