Fleetwood Museum

Fleetwood Museum stands in the Lancashire seaside town of Fleetwood. The building began as the town’s Customs House in 1836 and was one of the first structures erected in the new town planned by local landowner Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood. Architect Decimus Burton designed the Customs House and many other early buildings in Fleetwood. After serving as Fleetwood Town Hall from 1889, it became the offices of the Borough Treasurer and later a private school. In 1992 the building opened as Fleetwood Museum and was listed Grade II by Historic England in 1978. The museum holds local history and maritime collections, including the fishing smack Harriet built in 1893. Harriet was moved to the museum in 1998 and now sits in a purpose-built building behind the main structure. The museum’s Grade II listing recognises it as a nationally important building of special interest. A local trust formed in 2006 campaigns to keep the museum open despite funding challenges. After temporary closures in 2016 and during the COVID-19 pandemic, the museum reopened in May 2021. Visitors enter through two porticos at the top of stone staircases, each flanked by columns. The front façade has eight ranges of sash windows above a roughcast lime-plaster finish. Inside, iron railings with spear-shaped finials run between the staircases. The roof line features ornamental iron decoration and corner finials above a moulded cornice. The Harriet is displayed in a separate building behind the main museum, where its historic fishing smack can be viewed.