The Rum Story

The Rum Story is a museum in Whitehaven, Cumbria, telling the story of the rum trade and its origins. It occupies a restored 1785 trading shop and warehouses along the old harbour. The attraction opened in 2000 with funding from the UK National Lottery’s Millennium Commission. In 2007 it won Cumbria Tourism’s award for Small Visitor Attraction. The museum also explores the long history of the Jefferson family, wine merchants who traded in Whitehaven for over two centuries. The Jefferson family’s business began when Robert Jefferson arrived in 1704 and worked in the tobacco trade between Virginia and Whitehaven. By the 19th century, brothers Henry and Robert Jefferson held mortgages on sugar estates in Antigua. These estates used enslaved people—York’s Estate had 146 and New Division Estate had 309. The Rum Story now holds the original mortgage deed as part of its collection. Visitors follow a guided route through rooms that recreate the original shop and warehouse. Displays include barrels, bottles and documents from the Jefferson era. In 2025 the museum began updating its exhibits to address Whitehaven’s links to slavery. Local historians and Anti-Racist Cumbria are helping to ensure the new displays are accurate and sensitive. The aim is to show how the port’s past has been overlooked and how this shaped the town today.