Swanage Museum and Heritage Centre

Swanage Museum and Heritage Centre stands in the heart of Swanage, a coastal town in Dorset. It occupies part of the old market building on the seafront, built in the 1890s. The museum began in 1976 as the Tithe Barn Museum & Art Centre, founded by David Florence and Phyllis Mapley. Its exhibits once covered geology, local history, archaeology, maritime life and stone quarrying in Swanage and Purbeck. The original tithe barn, built of Purbeck stone, was Grade II listed but is now a private home after the museum left in 2005. The museum moved to its present site in 2006 after merging with the Heritage Centre. It now shares space once used for a film about Swanage. Since 2010 the museum has been run entirely by volunteers due to budget cuts. The curator in 2015 was David Haysom. Two other sites support its work: a local studies centre on Swanage Pier and a climate-controlled storage facility for family history records. Visitors find displays on fossils, the fishing industry, Purbeck stone and Victorian shop fronts. The remnants of the Swanage Pier Tramway start near the old market building. The museum keeps local records and family history files at its other sites. Volunteers organise the exhibits and help visitors explore the town’s past.