Whitstable Museum and Gallery is a heritage centre in Whitstable, Kent, with displays showing the history of the local oyster trade started by the Romans and of historical diving equipment.
The present museum was established in 1985.[] The museum received the Nautiek Award, for services to diving history, in 2001; the first time the award had been given to a UK establishment. A recent[] Arts Council grant has enabled the museum to be repainted, with new lighting and a general facelift.
The building's small doorway opens up into a large hall of displays. In 1881, the Ancient Order of Foresters bought the building, and inscribed "Foresters' Hall" over the door.
The museum has collections and displays on themes of the natural world, local oyster trade, early diving and the actor, Peter Cushing, who lived locally, as well as displays on the 1953 floods, shipwrecks and maritime archaeology. The collections are held under the following headings: social history, science and technology, maritime, land transport, fine art, decorative and applied art, archives and archaeology.
The natural world display shows life on the shoreline, including plants, fossils, sealife and birds.
The museum's largest object is Whitstable's first horse-drawn fire pump, which was manned by twenty-six volunteers. In 1867, the Norwich Union Fire Insurance Society had donated it to the town. The diving display shows standard diving dress with Siebe Gorman helmet and the traditional red bonnet to protect the head against the helmet (see image below). The museum also contains relics from the East Indiaman Hindostan, which wrecked at Margate in January 1803.
In 2010, the BBC chose the pudding pan pots from Whitstable Museum as objects illustrating the history of Kent as part of the A History of the World in 100 Objects project.
The museum provides object identification services, and holds specialist publications on its collections. Facilities are available by advance booking for study of objects from the collections.
The collection includes: ship paintings on the theme of international and local trading links; town, shore and coastal views; the work of local artists; and artworks borrowed from an international network of galleries.
There are about six exhibitions per year: some local, some which have toured nationally, and some with associated public events. In 2001, there was a special exhibition about art and water. In March 2002, there was an exhibition in which visitors could handle historic diving equipment and watch films about diving. There was a 2009−2010 exhibition on the last oyster yawl, Favourite, and a Girl Guides exhibition in 2010. The museum takes part in the annual Whitstable Oyster Festival by hosting interactive exhibitions. In September 2009, the museum had a World War II frontline exhibition.
Workshops are provided for schools and colleges, and students can study with practising artists. Adult courses, and a children's "Little Oysters Story Time" are held in addition. In 2015, the museum hosted the Whitstable Museum of Fun with workshops to make models of Daleks, the 1830 Invicta locomotive and oyster grotters.[]
The museum re-allocated some of its space for education in 2009 on its frontage with Oxford Street. In the event the Council voted in favour of this proposal.
