Mayor Explores Reopened Hailsham Heritage Centre and Museum

The Town Mayor, Cllr Paul Holbrook, benefited from a tour of the Hailsham Heritage Centre & Museum, which has reopened to the public today [23 May] for the 2025 season.

The heritage museum, located in Blackman’s Yard behind the Town Council offices in Market Street and run by local volunteers from the Hailsham Historical Society, houses a small but interesting display including a period kitchen, farming and agriculture, local historical items, 19^th and 20^th century photographs, wartime artifacts and memorabilia.

This year, the museum is opening on Fridays and Saturday mornings from 10am to 12.30pm from May through to the end of October, with admission being free of charge. Volunteers have been working hard during the closed season to improve the layout of the centre, and electrical rewiring improvements have been carried out by the Town Council’s contractors in recent weeks. There have also a been some changes and updates made to the to the museum’s various displays.

“I think it’s important for towns to have heritage museums such as this for the simple reason that we live in an age where people tend to forget about their history but also find it very interesting when they learn about it,” said Cllr Holbrook after his tour of the museum. “Our Heritage Centre has been at the heart of Hailsham for a long time and tells the story of the town’s history from its origins to the present day with some amazing displays and artifacts, and a wide range of materials for people researching their local or family history.”

“I encourage everyone to come and visit the museum – volunteer staff look forward to welcoming visitors from near and far and sharing their knowledge of this eventful town with you!”

Richard Goldsmith, Chair of the Hailsham Historical Society commented: “The themed display for the 2025 season in the Heritage Centre Museum is ‘Hailsham Schools’ this year, with some background to the history of education in the town. Some of our artefacts have been put into temporary storage following the work that has been undertaken in the building and our volunteers have been really busy updating the displays. We still have more work to carry out over the summer, and you may notice a few more changes as the year progresses.”

“Please come and visit us and say hello, we will be very pleased to see you on a Friday or Saturday morning until the end of October. Group visits at other times can also be arranged, please see our website for details.”

For more information on the Hailsham Heritage Centre & Museum, please contact Richard Goldsmith (Hailsham Historical Society) on 01323 843102 or visit hailshamhistoricalsociety.co.uk.