The history of the building 

A building with as much history as its artefacts!

Bridport Museum is one of the town’s oldest buildings, but its origins remain a mystery!

The fine 16th-century façade is all that remains of the original building. There was a fire in in 1876 which destroyed the back. After that, it was restored, pretty much to the structure you see today. The building is Grade II* Listed because its architecture is so important.

We don’t know what the building was originally used for. For many years it was known as ‘The Castle’. This may have come from its proximity to the area known from early documents as Castleyhay, or ‘place of castle’.  Alternatively, there may actually have been some kind of fortified building originally on the site.

The northern boundary of Anglo-Saxon and early Medieval Bridport lies a few feet north of the building and it is likely that a stronghold building would have stood at the entrance to the town. In 1876 two thatched cottages at the rear caught fire and the building was severely gutted.

Over the years, it has been a pub, a Conservative Club and an Oddfellow’s Hall.

The building was bought in 1932 by Captain Alfred Percy Codd, who presented it, together with around 100 paintings, as a gift to the town.