Guildhall Museum, Rochester
A fascinating local history museum for Medway, housed in two historic buildings.
The Guildhall Museum is a fun place where visitors can discover the history of Rochester and Medway in a museum for all the family. Colourful and attractive displays in two stunning historic buildings feature the local, social and maritime history of Medway. Highlights of the museum include the beautiful ornate 17th century Guildhall Chambers, a walk-through part reconstruction of a Medway prison hulk on three deck levels, the Charles Dickens Discovery room, a fully furnished reconstructed Victorian Drawing Room and the world famous 18th century Seaton Tool chest which belonged to Benjamin Seaton of Chatham.
Read MoreBeck Isle Museum of Rural Life
In 1967 a group of local people interested in preserving the history of Pickering decided to set up a small museum and art gallery. The ground floor of the house previously belonging to Dr Murphy was transferred into a Museum and Arts Centre.
The museum proved popular and quickly gained support and charitable statues, enabling the purchase of the whole Beck Isle Museum building which, in turn, enabled the collection to grow further.
Over the last 50 years the museum has continued to grow in popularity and size with the help of an enthusiastic and knowledgeable team of local volunteers. The collection now numbers some 50 thousand objects and catalogues Pickering’s rich history as a rural market town.
Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet
Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet is a unique eighteenth century industrial works. Catch a glimpse of life at home and at work at a rural scythe and steelworks dating back to the 18th century.
Abbeydale Works was once a producer of agricultural tools and the largest water-powered industrial site on the River Sheaf. It is now a group of Grade I and Grade II listed buildings and a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
See the Manager’s House and Worker’s Cottage, waterwheels, workshops, tilt hammers, a grinding hull, steam engine and the last complete surviving crucible steel furnance in the UK!
Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet has been restored and transformed following a 3 year £1million Heritage Lottery Funded restoration project completed in 2016.
Read MoreTyrwhitt Drake Museum of Carriages
Located on Mill Street in the centre of Maidstone, the Carriage Museum offers an insight into the fascinating history of transport and is home to a unique collection of horse-drawn vehicles and transport curiosities. More than 60 vehicles are on display, ranging from grand carriages such as Queen Victoria’s State Landau, to antique sedan chairs and Victorian ‘growlers’.
Housed in the 14th-century stables of the medieval Archbishop’s Palace complex used by the Archbishop of Canterbury when travelling through the county, the Carriage Museum collection was the gift of Sir Garrard Tyrwhitt-Drake, 12-time Mayor of Maidstone. He began collecting carriages when he realised that the horse-drawn vehicles of his childhood were being forced off the road by the motor car. Thanks to his energy and enthusiasm, Maidstone Carriage Museum opened in 1946 and was the first of its kind in Britain and is still viewed as one of the finest in Europe.
Read MoreMaidstone Museum and Bentlif Art Gallery
Maidstone Museum & Bentlif Art Gallery is housed in a charming Elizabethan Manor House with Victorian, 20th and 21st century extensions. Maidstone Museum’s art collection was started in 1855 when Thomas Charles bequeathed his art and archaeological collections to the town. Following his wishes his former home, Chillington Manor, was purchased and the museum opened in 1858. The collections grew due to the discerning taste of the early curators and benefactors. In 1873 the Brenchley Collection was bequeathed which includes two magnificent architectural capricci by Giovanni Paolo Panini (c. 1692–1765). In 1890 the Bentlif Art Gallery extension was erected, paid for by the generosity of local man Samuel Bentlif, in memory of his brother George. The Bentlif bequest of 1897 provides the core of the museums fine art holdings of landscapes, architectural and religious genre works. The collection includes important works by leading foreign and local artists: Abraham Storck (1644–1708), Albert Goodwin (1845–1932), Thomas Sidney Cooper (1803–1902) and Arthur Hughes (1832–1915). The museum has approximately 700 oil paintings dating from the fifteenth century and continues to acquire, primarily through grant-aid, historic and contemporary paintings with local relevance.
Read MoreCranbrook Museum
We are putting the nation’s art online, in partnership with over 3,000 public art collections. There are already over 200,000 artworks on Art UK and the number’s growing.
The art is from museums, universities, town halls, hospitals and even a lighthouse. Much of it isn’t usually on display. At the moment it’s mainly oil paintings but we’re adding watercolours and works on paper, with the nation’s sculpture planned to join soon.
We commission and write about artists, artworks, exhibitions and the stories behind paintings, from the world famous to the obscure.
Read MoreTate Britain
Tate is an executive non-departmental public body and an exempt charity. Its mission is to increase the public’s enjoyment and understanding of British art from the 16th century to the present day and of international modern and contemporary art
Read MoreBrighton Museum and Art Gallery
Brighton Museum & Art Gallery is located in the Royal Pavilion garden, at the heart of the city’s cultural quarter. Its diverse collections bring together the arts and history to tell stories about the city and the world we live in.
Read MoreHorsham Museum & Art Gallery
Beck Isle Museum of Rural Life
In 1967 a group of local people interested in preserving the history of Pickering decided to set up a small museum and art gallery. The ground floor of the house previously belonging to Dr Murphy was transferred into a Museum and Arts Centre.
The museum proved popular and quickly gained support and charitable statues, enabling the purchase of the whole Beck Isle Museum building which, in turn, enabled the collection to grow further.
Over the last 50 years the museum has continued to grow in popularity and size with the help of an enthusiastic and knowledgeable team of local volunteers. The collection now numbers some 50 thousand objects and catalogues Pickering’s rich history as a rural market town.
