Museum Opening 2022
The Museum will be open again from 1st April.
We will be pleased to welcome visitors each Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday until the end of September (excluding Good Friday), between 10am and 1pm.
We've revamped our front window display and introduced two new photo displays, one showing some historic images, more available to view inside!
The second showing some highlights from our Museum exhibits.
Our Story of Saxmundham, a pictorial book, containing more than 50 pages of reminiscences and history of the town, is out now
If you would like a copy mailed to you, contact the Museum directly with your details via the email address of Info@ and we'll reply with ordering information and a payment link.
The book is also availble from Crisp's on Saxmundham High Street.
Or the bookshops at Aldeburgh, Beccles or Woodbridge.
National Lottery Heritage Fund and local councils and councillors
We'd like to thank the National Lottery Heritage Fund and our local councils and councillors for their support during the last few difficult months.Benjamin Britten & Peter Pears
Britten Pears Arts has an extensive archive available to view at the Red House and also online.
They have kindly allowed us access to their collection, particularly concerning the invoices and receipts from Saxmundham businesses.
This gives us an insight into how many local businesses provided services to Britten and Pears but also most are no longer trading.
Two that are still here include H. G. Crisp and Flick & son, although both now under different ownership.
One particular story that comes out concerns Benjamin Britten's ownership of a 1957 Jensen interceptor covertable. Car dealers Smith and Wesby undertook several works on the car to fix rain water ingress and a petrol leak. By 1960 Britten had obviously grown tired of all the repair work and traded-in the Jensen for a Mercedes instead!
Who remembers the local vets as "Downie & Fishwick", later to become "Fishwick, Hill and Button"?
We have a display which you can preview here.
