The Seaside Museum Herne Bay

The Seaside Museum Herne Bay sits in a Georgian building on William Street, once the town’s main shopping thoroughfare. The street is now part of a conservation area, and the museum moved here in 1996 after decades in the High Street above the public library. It began in 1932 as the Herne Bay Records Society, founded by local doctor and antiquarian Dr Tom Bowes. Harold Gough, another local historian, ran the museum for many years and created exhibits on the clock tower and the pier. Canterbury City Council manages the site, while the collections belong to the Herne Bay Historical Records Society. The museum’s displays trace 60 million years of local life, from fossils and Stone Age tools to Roman forts and Victorian seaside holidays. A highlight is the prototype bouncing bomb tested off Reculver in 1943, recovered from the seabed in 1997 and now conserved for display. Archaeological finds include Anglo-Saxon glass and Roman tools from the fort at Reculver, while palaeontology exhibits feature mammoth tusks and sharks’ teeth. Children can search trays for fossils and then try to spot sharks’ teeth on the beach at low tide. The collections also tell the story of Herne Bay as a Victorian resort, with exhibits on penny licks and early arcade machines. Rooms display local art exhibitions and host a free events programme. The building itself, with its original Georgian features, provides a quiet setting for exploring the town’s past. Visitors leave with a sense of how the coastline and community have changed through the centuries.