Museum in East Street is closed for the winter, reopening in March. Forum exhibition is open 4 days a week. Appeal for information on the History of Sittingbourne High Street, photos, memories, directories etc.

Membership and calendar

Find out what's happening, latest news and events open to members and non-members

Titanic passengers from Sittingbourne 100 years ago !Two known town residents were on the ship. One survived, one didn't !

Anglo Saxon CSI in the Forum welcomes 10,000th visitor See also the project blog for latest news.

Our Aims

A summary of what we hope to accomplish for the town's heritage.

Visitor's Enquiries

Many many enquiries from visitors to this web site, with answers supplied by other readers, or by our members. Subjects such as genealogy, street & buildings, WWII, schools, industry, origins of the town etc.

Museum Shop

See what we have for sale either in the museum shop or by mail

The Romans in Sittingbourne

Bronze Age Artifacts

The Bell Founders of Borden

Click here to find answers to some Frequently Asked Questions !

Torry Hill, nr Milstead

Opening Times

The museum will reopen on March 24th and is normally open on Saturdays from April until October. At other times you may have access by appointment, and of course for the next few months you may visit us four days a week in the Forum at the Anglo-Saxon CSI exhibition and conservation workshop. You are welcome to come and see our displays and have an opportunity to talk about Sittingbourne’s heritage. Admission is free, though donations are always welcome, however small.

If you live away from Sittingbourne, why not keep in contact by becoming a member?

Sittingbourne Heritage Museum

67 East Street

Sittingbourne

Kent, ME10 4BQ

Registered Charity No. 1070698

Anglo Saxon grave finds at The Meads

Digging pug (brickfields)

New Road, Milton

Webb's, East Street

The Iwade Settlement - Bronze Age to Mediaeval times... now on display in the museum.

Archaeological finds show evidence of occupation from around 3000 B.C. to the 1500s. The finds from this major site have been placed with our museum. We exhibit a number of them against a background of an Iron Age village and including information about the finds and life in those times.

Troops marching in West Street during the Great War. (Looking West, the railings on the left are outside the "Volunteers" pub. The turning on the right is Cockleshell Walk")

Our Aims

We aim to preserve and display the heritage of Sittingbourne through artefacts, photographs and documents. We seek to promote interest in the history of Sittingbourne through our quarterly journal, free to members; by holding illustrated lectures as well as providing a service to schools and running our website.

We hope that you like our web site and find it useful. We will be improving it all the time and welcome your suggestions and comments. Please Contact Us if there is anything you would like to see on the web-site, or if there is something which you have that may be of interest to the museum.

Click here for a page of YOUR questions and answers.

the Foresters arms, Berry Street

Copies are still available of our publication:

‘The Story of Gore Court House

and Estate, Tunstall’

written by

Helen Allinson.

This beautiful booklet is fully illustrated in colour and tells the story of the house and estate from the 14^th century to the purchase by the Council and its conversion into King George’s Playing Field.

Copies may be purchased from

The Museum, (on Saturdays when open), from 65 Park Road

and from The Central Library.

Cost £2.50 per copy.

Copies signed by the author are also available.

OUR ROMAN DISPLAY

They came in 55 BC and again in 43 AD. when the invasion force included a unit of The Praetorian Guard (some members pictured below from a relief in The Louvre), and stayed nearly 400 years.

We have brought back something of our Roman history and made it available as part of our museum display. We have created a display of Roman artefacts - some of them original Sittingbourne finds - against a background of a Roman Villa, designed to give a flavour of life in our area all those centuries ago.

click here for more information about the roman period

picture: Staff at Sittingbourne West Boys County Secondary School - 1953

Our Members

We rely for support on our members of whom we have over 500. They help with maintenance, act as guides, and assist with our archives as well as providing essential continuing finance.

Click here to see details of the 2008 AGM.

Visit our members page to see what is going on !

Brickmaking

During the second half of the 19^th century the building of Victorian London created a vast demand for bricks. In the Sittingbourne area the materials were available to manufacture the yellow Kent Stock Brick more cheaply than the traditional red brick.

more...

Edward Bishop & Sons

The ledgers from this company which built the Sittingbourne and Kemsley paper mills have been donated to the museum. This will be a wonderful resource for research and we are most grateful.