Beccles and District Museum

About the museum

Beccles and District Museum is housed in Leman House on Ballygate, a flint-fronted building of about 1570 that was restored and refronted in the 1760s. It was originally timber-framed, and the attic still has fine roof trusses of the period. In 1631 Sir John Leman left the building to the town in his will. It was already a school, and he also gave land to pay the schoolmaster, so that 48 boys could be taught there. The street front was rebuilt in flint and brick in the 1760s, and the free school closed in 1905.

The building had several owners in the twentieth century, including a private school, until the Townlands Trust acquired it in 1994 and carried out major repairs. In 1996 the museum was given the use of the ground floor, which holds the four rooms open to visitors today.

The museum covers the town and the surrounding district. The School Room, the largest gallery, shows local industries such as engineering, aeroplane manufacture, printing, milling and malting, together with farming, clothing, education and home life, and the museum's collection of Beccles long case clocks. Other rooms hold a model of Beccles as it was in 1841, material on Sir John Leman School and on the chemist Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, and river finds from the Waveney, including an Iron Age post dated to about 75 BC. A computer gives access to the museum's data archive for family and house history research.

Highlights

• Beccles long case clock collection
• Model of Beccles as it was in 1841
• Iron Age river post from the Waveney, dated to about 75 BC
• Displays on Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry
• Leman House, a flint-fronted Grade I listed building

Permanent exhibitions

• The School Room – Local industries, farming, trade and home life, with the museum's Beccles long case clocks and a town hall tower clock made in the town.
• River Post Room – Archaeology and geology of the River Waveney, including an Iron Age river post, with a computer giving access to the museum's data archive.

Founded

1976

Admission & discounts

Admission is free.

Entry is free; donations are encouraged.

Accessibility

• Wheelchair accessible
• Elevator
• Accessible restroom: no information
• Accessible parking: no information
• Service dogs welcome: no information
• Tactile models & exhibits: no information
• Sign language tours: no information
• Easy-to-read materials: no information
• Audio description: no information

The main entrance at the back of the building has three steps. A separate disabled entrance is available: ring the doorbell and a steward will open the door. All exhibition rooms are on the ground floor, and a small lift bypasses the short flight of steps down to the School Room.

Kids & families

The museum hasn’t published any information on this.

Getting there & parking

The museum is about 400 metres up Ballygate from St Michael's Church. Enter through the pedestrian gate from the pavement and walk round to the back of the building, where the porch and entrance are.

Amenities & dining

• Museum shop

Small shop selling locally published books on the history of Beccles.

Events & venue rental

The museum hasn’t published any information on this.

Plan your visit