Discover which treasures from our costume collection are currently on display...

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'What We Wore in the War'

A New Costume Display until January 2021
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​A commemoration of the 75th anniversary of VE day. Come and see our new display. It’s a mixture of uniforms from the WVS  and the FANYS (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry), two items of Land Girl clothing, a fine wool day dress, a  ‘parachute silk’ blouse, a WW2 Red Cross apron and some very roomy cotton bloomers. Ration books and identity cards help to set the scene. Local photographs add to the sense of history, as there are several views of Henfield High Street taken on VE Day itself, 8th May 1945. A splendid photograph captures nurses and the Women’s Land Army marching up the High Street on this day. I wonder if the Land Army uniform in the case was being worn in the picture? Typically for our wonderful museum collection, I have been able to include a copy of the Parish magazine from June 1945 detailing the VE Day celebrations in Henfield. This is the essence of Henfield Museum. The clothes, the photographs and the community records all there to be enjoyed by us 75 years later.
 
Stephanie Richards
Curator of Costume

Marking the 75th anniversary of VE Day, an exhibition of wartime clothing, much of it from Henfield, is now on display at the Museum.

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The Sussex Rifle Volunteers

On permanent display

The vivid Victorian uniforms pictured were all made at the long established Longley Brothers Drapers who were based at Bank House in Henfield High Street.

​On display are the uniforms of the well known Henfield doctor, Adolphus Caudle the Younger, in addition to that of Sergeant George Roberts. With recruits having to fund their own uniform and rifle, joining the Volunteers was an aspiration beyond the average Henfield labourer and mainly open to professional men.

A Victorian precursor to the modern Territorials, the Rifle Volunteers were replaced by the Territorials during the army reforms that took place in the years after the Boer War.