Photo: Simon Cobb · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons

Fowey Museum

Small local museum in Fowey's medieval town hall, with civic regalia, costumes, maritime models and photographs of the town's history.

Ask the museum for opening hoursAdmission £1

Directions

About the museum

Fowey Museum is housed in the old medieval town hall in Trafalgar Square, beside the Town Quay in Fowey. The building began as a merchant's house in the fifteenth century and became the borough's town hall in the seventeenth century. When a larger town hall was built next to it in 1787, the older building became the mayor's chambers.

When Fowey became a borough again in 1913, the lord of the manor gave the town hall back to the new council and allowed the medieval building to be used for a museum. Early exhibits included a cloak worn by the Italian leader Giuseppe Garibaldi, who visited Fowey in 1864.

Today the museum is small, and it has appealed for volunteers to help run it. Its displays illustrate the social and civic history of the town, with mayoral regalia, costumes, weapons, old photographs and postcards, and models and sails that recall Fowey's seafaring heritage.

Highlights

Mayoral and civic regalia
Costumes, weapons and old photographs of Fowey
Ship models, maritime photographs and ship sails
Exhibits on the town's literary and local history links
Setting in one of the oldest buildings in the town

Permanent exhibition

Fowey Museum collection – Civic regalia, costumes, weapons, models of sailing ships, ship sails, maritime photographs and postcards that show the social and seafaring history of Fowey.