I have just enjoyed a guided tour of Southwold Museum courtesy of its President, Adnams’s own Simon Loftus. I am ashamed to admit that I hadn’t visited the museum in a couple of decades, and it blew me away.
The displays are punchy, modern and utterly compelling. A great colour scheme picks out themes, and the visitor’s progress around this tiny, packed space is made entertaining via quirky displays, fascinating cabinets and exciting interactive bits and pieces.
How do you make a tiny museum with such a huge variety of donated stuff logical and compelling? With a heck of a lot of planning, intelligence and skill, that’s how. Thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund and an enthusiastic bunch of trustees and volunteers this has become a magical place.
I’d heartily recommend a visit, and allow a couple of hours so you can really explore. It’s like something out of an E Nesbit or C S Lewis children’s book and needs a lot of time to be appreciated fully.
What a beautiful little building! Suffolk’s not a part of the world I know very well: but suddenly I feel very curious! Small museum owners are so clever in the way they preserve our heritage…