Please follow this link to our new website
for the latest news, events and displays
Admission Free.
Opening Times 1st Mar to 31st Oct:
Open Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays 1 pm – 5 pm.
Open Wednesdays 2 pm – 5 pm.
(Winter opening times 1st Nov to end Feb: Sundays and New Year Day 2 pm – 4 pm )
A CURRENT EXHIBITION:
From Tin Town to Des Res – The Story of Marlow Bottom
18-Mar-17 to Aug-17
The Story of Marlow Bottom – from Tin Town to Des Res. The exhibition compiled by valley residents and designed by the Marlow Museum tells the fascinating story over centuries of how the once open countryside and farmland became an important residential area with shops, church, school and businesses, Entry is Free and a booklet covering the story with pictures is available to purchase. Greetings Cards featuring the Valley are also available.
Fun activities at Marlow Museum for children over Spring and Summer .. read more.
Dressing up.
Choose where you would build a house in the valley.
We are a group of enthusiastic volunteers who believe a beautiful and historic town like Marlow should have a museum. If you feel the same, come and join us.
And please take our quick Survey for a chance to win a book of photos of Old Marlow!
A PREVIOUS EXHIBITION:
‘Rebels, Royals & Community Champions –
Twenty Women who left their Mark on Marlow’
Opened on 9th December 2016 by Paralympic Gold Medalist Naomi Riches
We are a modest museum affiliated to the Association of Independent Museums but an independent registered charity. The museum is staffed and run entirely by volunteers.
Although the town had been talking about having a museum for at least twenty years, we only opened our doors in 2009. We still have a long way to go to fully represent the long history and variety of life in Marlow town and surrounding villages of Little Marlow, Bisham, Medmenham, Greater Marlow and Marlow Bottom.
Our ambition is a bigger museum to display a larger collection of objects, photographs, documents and text relating to our district. There’s an old fire engine that we’d love to show you if only we had the room.
Meanwhile we have a permanent collection of smaller objects (the local stocks, General Higginson’s drum captured from the Russians in the Crimean War), pictures, maps and reference books. And at any one time we also have on show one of a series of temporary exhibitions on key topics relating to the district, such as Brewing, Lacemaking, Natural History, Famous People. This means that it’s always worth coming back for another look round – there’s often something new.
We’re not run by the council. We have to raise all our own funds every year for things like rent, insurance, publicity, equipment and exhibition costs. You can donate online or when you visit us. See you soon.
Our History
The Museum has been open in Court Garden since 2009. But a group of enthusiasts from the local history group of The Marlow Society had been planning a museum for about fifteen years before that. John Evans, the first chair, and Mike Hyde, the present chair, were the driving forces for the creation of the museum.
- In 1995 The Marlow Society, Wycombe District Council and Marlow Town Council, supported by Buckinghamshire County Museum and Wycombe Museum, commissioned Richard Harrison, an independent museum professional to produce a “Feasibility Study”. This recommended the establishment of a “Marlow Centre” containing museum galleries, educational facilities and more.
- Eventually a group of interested local people got together to form a Steering Committee, with verbal support from Marlow Town Council and other local Parish Councils and working very closely with the Wycombe District Museum Service and the Bucks County Museum. The group gave presentations to local organisations and held some public exhibitions in various venues in Marlow.
- In 2001 a public meeting was held to see how much support there was from local people and organisations towards the Project. Nearly one hundred local people and dignitaries attended the meeting.
- Finally on 8th July 2003 the First General Meeting led to the creation of the ‘Marlow Museum Centre Project’. Since then regular Annual General Meetings have been held.
- In 2009 Wycombe District Council offered us a lease on the Peacock Room at Court Garden in Pound Lane. Marlow Museum became Registered Charity No.1129346 and opened for the first time.
Our Aims
- To provide a museum that illustrates the history of Marlow Town, Little Marlow, Greater Marlow, Marlow Bottom, Bisham and Medmenham.
- To help people of all ages learn about and enjoy the history of Marlow and district.
- To act as a focal point for research and information and preservation of the heritage of Marlow and district.
- To become an Accredited Museum.
- To gather sufficient volunteers, supporters and resources to move the museum to bigger premises, with longer opening hours, where we can display larger objects.
Get Involved!
Why not find out more about volunteering for Marlow Museum? Send us your details below and we’ll be in touch. No obligation.
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