7 Museums to Explore in East Sussex

Bexhill Museum offers something for everyone from local history and archaeology to fashion and Bexhill’s motor heritage.The unique collections are housed in a distinctive building which combines a traditional Edwardian museum with a modern extension. Main galleries include costume and motor racing heritage as well as local archaeology and history, dinosaurs and fossils, natural history and geology, social history and cultures of other lands, local arts and crafts.

Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft was situated in the Sussex South Downs, the museum focuses on the artists and craftspeople who made Ditchling a creative hub in the 20th century. The site is home to a nationally important collection of artefacts made by the arts and craftsmen who lived in the village, such as typographer and sculptor Eric Gill, designer of the London Underground font Edward Johnston and printer Hilary Pepler.

The Hastings Fishermen’s Museum is a small independent museum dedicated to the fishing industry and maritime history of Hastings in East Sussex. It opened in 1956 and is now one of the most popular tourist attractions in the town and borough of Hastings. The building, a simple Gothic Revival-style stone chapel, has been listed at Grade II by English Heritage for its architectural and historical importance.

Hastings Museum & Art Gallery is a family-friendly museum with amazingly diverse collections and it was established over 125 years ago and has always offered people the opportunity to explore art, culture and history from around the world. The early local history gallery recounts the history of the area from prehistory to the Saxons. Local wildlife is displayed in dioramas of different local habitats, and there is a dinosaur gallery.

Michelham Priory is a family-friendly museum with hands-on activities for children. Explore Michelham’s fascinating 800 year history, from its foundation by Augustinian canons, through the destruction caused by the dissolution of the monasteries in Tudor times and into its later life as a country house. Explore eight hundred years of history in the house and gatehouse with hands-on activities and displays of furniture and artefacts. Rooms include an interactive Victorian kitchen, our WWII evacue

Seaford Museum is a beautiful museum which contains objects, archives and displays relating to the history of the local area.The Museum is housed in Martello Tower no. 74, which is situated at the eastern end of Seaford seafront. There is a deceptive 5,000 square feet of display area, which includes the roof with cannon, entrance floor with museum shop, the lower floor of the tower and the covered dry moat area.

The Shipwreck Museum is an independent charitable Museum set in the historic Old Town of Hastings, UK. The Museum has artefacts from many ships wrecked in the English Channel from the Goodwin Sands in Kent to Pevensey Bay in East Sussex. The museum is open every day May 1 to October 31, from 10 am to 6 pm.