Ships, Planes & Cars
November 2021 - March 2022 From a private collection Two of the most famous ships in the world have sailed into Henfield Museum! The 17th century Swedish warship Vasa and Nelson's HMS Victory can be seen in incredibly intricate model form. The real life Vasa (1628) was to be the pride of King Gustavus Adolphus' fleet, but was feared top heavy. Nonetheless launched. she sunk on her maiden voyage. Recovered largely intact from the bottom in 1961 after three centuries' oblivion and two years' hard work, she is now on display in her own museum at Stockholm. After her celebrated career in battle, HMS Victory (1765) was retired from active service in 1824 and after much public lobbying was ultimately saved for the nation. Finally dry docked at Portsmouth in 192 after a century of harbour service, she is now the foremost feature of the historic dockyard. The progression in shipbuilding styles over the century and a half can be readily compared with the models completed in painstaking detail. Accompanying them, a collection of classic Dinky vehicles and aeroplanes have driven and flown in, all carefully restored from battered to 'like new' status. |
Henfield's Early History
August 2021 - November 2021 Discover a tale from Henfield's Medieval past - that of Stretham Manor. Named for the Roman road it stood beside (now known as the Greensand Way), it was an impressive moated site, likely at the heart of local authority for the Bishops of Chichester who held these lands. The exhibition focuses on the archaeological excavations undertaken by A. Barr Hamilton from 1958-82, illustrating the layout of the stone and wood built structures on the site from its 13th century peak to the final abandonment in the 15th century. A number of smaller household finds and larger masonry items from the dig are displayed in addition to the excavation map and photos from the digs. |
The Thames Mudlark
September 2020 - July 2021 For the re-opening of the museum in September, the museum is pleased to host a display on mudlarking, featuring items from the collection of enthusiastic local retired mudlarker and author Graham du Heaume. Discover a lost world of the everyday and the exotic, ranging from the Medieval to the Victorian. Knives, keys to the unknown, padlocks and horseshoes, a Georgian love token, a bearded bottle, a British Bulldog revolver, perhaps cast into the river after deeds unremembered... All were preserved, deep in the anaerobic mud - now they see the light of the modern day. Read the story of the collection... |
The 1,250th Anniversary of the Founding of St. Peter's Church
A wooden church dedicated to St. Peter was granted a charter by the South Saxon King Osmund in 770 and subsequently ratified by King Offa after his subjugation of the Sussaxons. This exhibition of photographs and other documents celebrates the long unbroken history of St. Peter's as the centre of the village since that date. |
![]() Ceremonial cope from St. Peter's Church, Henfield. Image, Henfield Museum (CC BY-NC-SA)
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