Explore the latest news and find out what's on this month
Explore our learning offer for schools, families and community groups
Uncover the rich history of Elmbridge with our latest online exhibitions
Want to discover more about your local area?
Explore the latest news and find out what's on this month
Explore our learning offer for schools, families and community groups
Uncover the rich history of Elmbridge with our latest online exhibitions
Want to discover more about your local area?
Elmbridge Museum is a forward-thinking and creative local authority service dedicated to increasing opportunities for people to engage in arts, culture and heritage throughout the borough of Elmbridge.
We organise touring exhibitions at a range of community locations around the borough, using the museum collections to explore our rich local heritage. We maintain an active learning programme comprised of regular family fun activities as well as outreach sessions and discovery boxes which bring local history to life for school children, teachers and community groups. We also run a popular local studies enquiries service and maintain an active online presence through our website and social media.
Our collection of over 40,000 objects tells the story of the borough throughout the past 15,000 years. The collection consists of a wide range of material including archaeology, art, costume, geology, natural history, numismatics, photography and social history.
The origin of Elmbridge Museum dates back to the late 19th Century when the Weybridge Literary and Mutual Improvement Society aimed to inspire “the artisans and working class of the village” with public exhibitions. Following discussions in 1908, the Weybridge Urban District Council (WUDC) formed a committee to establish a Museum.
‘’The idea of a museum for Weybridge commends itself to me as an excellent one and I, with pleasure give £5 towards its inception . . . I think it of the greatest possible value for every district with associations like Weybridge to keep the records of the past together.’’
(Philip E Pilditch, promises 4 De Court paintings)
The Museum was opened to the public by Sir Charles Holroyd, Director of the National Gallery, on Wednesday 23rd June 1909. It was then the Museum for Weybridge and occupied a single room of Aberdeen House on Church Street. Dr Eric Gardner, a local doctor and history enthusiast with a special interest in archaeology was appointed honorary curator. He held this post until his death in 1951.
Ethel Harting, who was on the Weybridge Urban District Council Committee, worked alongside Dr Gardner from the foundation of the museum, acting as Natural History Curator until 1926. Miss Harting was a skilled botanical watercolourist and painted a series of over 170 watercolours of local Weybridge flora. These are still in the Museum’s collection.
After the reorganisation of local councils in 1933, when Walton and Weybridge Urban District Councils joined together, the museum’s collecting policy was widened to include the Walton area. Walton Museum had closed in the 1920s with the collections moving to Weybridge after the Second World War. The museum continued to be called Weybridge Museum, and re-opened in purpose-built premises above Weybridge Library in 1967.
The curator at this time, Brian Blake, was a founder member of the Oatlands Palace Excavation Committee and agreed that a room should be set aside at Elm Grove to store the 250 boxes and trays of finds from this former Henry VIII Royal Palace. Excavations took place between 1963–73 and 1983-84.
Avril Lansdell joined the Museum in 1967 as Assistant Curator, and on Brian Blake’s departure became Curator. During her time at Weybridge Museum she helped create a regionally significant collection of costume covering the period circa 1750 to the late 20th century.
In 1974 Esher District Council joined Walton and Weybridge Urban District Council and the borough of Elmbridge as we know it was created. Weybridge Museum was now charged with covering the history of the seventeen towns and villages that made up the new authority, however, the change of name to Elmbridge Museum did not happen until 1991.
In 1984, some staff, and significant parts of the collection, left the Museum to establish the new Brooklands Museum.
In 1995, Elmbridge Museum received one of the first Heritage Lottery Fund grants to refurbish its exhibition displays. Lloyd Grossman, TV personality, Chairman of the Campaign for Museums and Member of the Museum and Galleries Commission, opened the refurbished Elmbridge Museum on the 10th December 1996.
A moratorium on acquisitions was set in 2005 as storage space was close to capacity and there was a large cataloguing backlog.
In 2011/12, a new Collections Policy was developed, with the support of internal and external stakeholders, which re-focused the collection on items from and of significance to the history of the Borough of Elmbridge: 4,080 objects were identified and approved for disposal to more appropriate museums.
Despite the moratorium, the Museum acquires items of significance such as a Treasure Act 1996 post-Medieval gold, finger Mourning ring, found in Cobham.
In 2014 the museum at Weybridge Library closed and the team relocated to the Civic Centre in Esher.