Who are we?

Brixham Museum & History Society was founded as a result of a public meeting held on 9th December 1957 for the purpose of recording, saving and displaying the heritage of the historic town and fishing port. The society is a registered charity, number 306633. The society opened Brixham Museum on 2nd June 1958, originally in a former pilchard press in Higher Street. It was a very dilapidated building, offered to us rent free for three years if we restored it, which we did, at a cost of £450.

In the 1970s, John Horsley began archaeological digs at Berry Head, where parts of Brixham's Napoleonic forts were painstakingly excavated. More than 9,000 specimens were unearthed, including gun flints, pottery fragments and uniform buttons, adding immensely to the knowledge of which regiments were stationed there, and of the lives they led. The museum used premises at Rea Barn, Brixham as a laboratory and for storage, and this was also used as a lecture room.

In 1973, a new museum complex was proposed for the Southern quayside, including conservation workshop, education room, working sail-loft, restaurant and office space for letting. This never went ahead. In 1975, the rent at Higher Street became prohibitive, and Torbay Council offered the vacant former Police Station and Sergeant's House, built in 1902. A public appeal helped to raise the necessary conversion costs of £8,000, and the Museum opened at the present site in the heatwave of July 1976.

In 1986, Torbay Council agreed a building extension grant, in exchange for relinquishing the Rea Barn premises and negotiating possible incorporation of the British Fisheries Museum. Delays and the need to strengthen the foundations, which are on the site of a former Naval reservoir, increased the costs by £5,000, but thanks to the efforts of many, especially Councilor Chapman, our Maritime Gallery was opened in April 1990. Following the 1989 Museums Act, we registered with the Museum & Art Galleries Commission. In 1999, the members voted to change the Society name to include the word 'Heritage'.

The Society has financed the publication of John Horsley's 'Short History of Brixham', and Derrick Johnson's 'William of Orange's Expedition to England, 1688' and published Arthur Ellis's unfinished manuscript as 'History of Brixham and its People,' thanks to the transcription and editing skills of Derek Wilson. Our document collection includes bound volumes of the Brixham Western Guardian, a local newspaper, from 1902 to 1968. Fifteen volumes have been microfilmed through the British Library, partly funded by a legacy.

Recently, the Museum has published a number of books including Mike Miller's two volume "Brixham Built, Owned or Registered Vessels", "Military and Other Buttons from the Berry Head Forts 1794 – 1817" by Dr Philip Armitage with illustrations by Robert Rouse and "Medicinal Purposes: Public Health and Primary Care in Brixham since1890" by Samantha Little.

During the 2002/2003 winter refurbishment period, a wheel-chair access ramp was built at the Museum entrance, ground floor doorways were widened and a toilet for the use of disabled visitors installed adjacent to the foyer.

Family Research has expanded significantly, leading to history courses being offered at Brixham Community College and contacts being established throughout the world. A research facility (funded by the Clore Foundation with additional support from AstraZenica) has been made available on the ground floor, allowing access to our family history and photographic computerised databases, and this has become a Devon Record Office service point, with microfiche access to the parish registers of St Mary's and All Saints Brixham and of Churston church, plus those available from the two Brixham methodist churches and some parish records from Dartmouth covering Kingswear.

Acknowledgements

Some of the original collection was provided on loan from the town's I.C.I. marine laboratory. The Museum was an early success, and expanded into the first floor of two neighbouring cottages. In the 1960s, it housed the collection of the National Fisheries Museum. They opened in a separate building on Brixham Quay, but closed in 1988. Coastguard documents and memorabilia held previously at the Coastguard Training School moved into the new museum, including a Breeches Bouy cart, but in 1993 all 200 items were removed to the new Coastguard National Museum. In 1997 the loan of the archives of the Brixham Seamen's Orphan Boys Home added over a hundred record books to our collection.

In 1967, Torbay Borough Council decided to financially support the Museum. Most importantly of all, the Museum is heavily dependent on the efforts and enthusiasm of its members, many of whom are volunteer painters, cleaners, caretakers, stewards and fund-raisers throughout the year.

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