The old customs house, Quay Street
Four rooms, and what the town kept
A small museum of the harbour and the trade that came through it. Open Wednesday to Sunday, free every Thursday evening.
On now
In the rooms this month
Salt, Rope and Paper
What the customs officers wrote down, and what they wrote it on. Ledgers, seals and the tools of a trade that counted everything twice.
The Customs Collection
Nine hundred objects, half of them given by families in the town. Weights, charts, a pilot boat and the desk the building was built around.
The Quay at Night
Photographs of the working harbour after dark, taken over forty years by people who worked on it.
The building
Four rooms, in the order you meet them
One floor, no lift needed, and about an hour end to end.
I
The Long Room
Where cargo was declared. The oak counter is original and the ceiling is the reason people come in.
II
The Harbour
Charts, buoys, weights and the working half of the collection, arranged by what each thing was for.
III
The Town
How a hundred families made a living from the water. Photographs, letters and the pilot boat.
IV
The North Room
The changing room. Two exhibitions a year, and the talks on Thursday evenings.
Who runs it
A civic museum, and a small one
The customs house stopped working in 1971 and stood empty for seven years. The town bought it, three people catalogued what was left inside, and it opened as a museum in 1978. It is still run that way: four paid staff, twenty volunteers, and a collection that grows by gift rather than by purchase. Nothing here is on loan from anywhere far away.
The North Rooms
How to visit
When the doors are open
- Wednesday to Sunday
- 10:00 - 17:00
- Thursday
- 10:00 - 20:00
- Monday and Tuesday
- Closed
Closed Monday and Tuesday. Last entry half an hour before closing.
Thursday evenings are free
From five until eight, no ticket, no booking. The talks start at half past six in the North Room.