Sidmouth Museum

Sidmouth Museum sits in Hope Cottage, a Grade II listed building in the Devon seaside town of Sidmouth. The cottage was extended in 2020 to create more display space and new disabled access. Owned by the Sid Vale Association, it holds collections in lacemaking, local archaeology and geology. The museum began in 1950 when Mary Kilgour invited the SVA to take over a collection she had organised with Annie Leigh Browne and Lady Lockyer. It opened first at Woolcombe House before moving to Hope Cottage in 1970. The museum is run entirely by volunteers and closes each winter while exhibits are refreshed from its large archives. A small shop sells SVA publications and Sidmouth souvenirs. Guided geology and town walks take place through the town, led by local experts. The museum has digitised fragile items such as Sidmouth Shingle, a ten-volume illustrated record of the coastline running to more than four thousand pages. Visitors find a reception room with coronation memorabilia from Queen Victoria to Elizabeth II and a children’s area. The geology room displays rare reptile fossils and amphibian bones found on Sidmouth’s beaches, including remains of the Rhynchosaur. A megalodon tooth, belemnite guards and woolly mammoth teeth, the largest weighing 5.5 kg, are also shown. The ‘Sidmouth 1942’ display recalls the town’s wartime role as home to an RAF cadet training school. The lace room holds the original 1814 Long Picture panorama of Sidmouth seafront and digital screens showing lace not on physical display.