Into Autumn/Winter 2026
The opening of new galleries will feature displays on various themes
Our aim is to vary and change our displays as frequently as possible to portray the different aspects and events of fenland social history
The Great Fire of Chatteris which destroyed over 100 cottages, houses and barns in Hive End (West Street and Clare Street) in September 1864.
Boot and shoe makers of Chatteris featuring many examples of their work plus tools and machines from local businesses.
A general overview of Chatteris commerce featuring many well known shops, many remembered, and now all lost from our streets.
Agriculture has always been the main employer of men and women until recent times. Root crops and wheat were key components to this local industry, however, cattle and sheep featured heavily on the fenland meadows to provide milk, butter and meat to a local population. A display of bygone tools and implements varying from a carrot chopper to a fiddle drill.
The Model Railway of Chatteris, which could not be moved from our old location and, sadly, had to be completely dismantled has now been painstakingly reconstructed by volunteers. Watch trains pass through Chatteris Station and the Docks as it was in the 1950s and 1960s.
Other Temporary Exhibitions
An large and informative exhibition detailing the draining of the Fens in relation to Chatteris with many photographs, tools, documents and maps.
The display narrates an overall background to the draining of the Fens featuring the key participates, King Charles I, 4th Earl of Bedford and the ‘Adventurers’, all of whom invested in Cornelius Vermuyden’s plan to improve access to the land. The greater part of the display centres on how the drainage plans affected the landscape around Chatteris, the improvement to summer pastures, the loss of the River Ouse tributary known as the West Water which also resulted in the loss of the ferry towards Somersham. The resources of the fenland landscape are detailed with methods of hunting and fishing. One cabinet explains the digging of peat for fuel with spade and beckett. Many tools are exhibited so you can view slubbers and hodders.
Always popular, an exhibition illustrating the pubs and beer houses of Chatteris, so far we are up to about 50+ and counting! A map of the town marks all the known beer houses and pubs, 2 large folders contain many photographs and information along with numerous objects relating to the pubs and breweries of Chatteris.
We have chosen a selection of objects relating to people’s travels around the globe. This ranges from a beautiful pair of Chinese child’s shoes to a Zulu beaded skirt.
Other displays currently feature:
The Roman settlement on Langwood with many objects found over the years.
History Beneath Our Feet features many objects relating to the first settlers on the island of Chatteris.
Ice Age fossils and bones of the animals that roamed the landscape around Chatteris.
Fenland Skating. A popular display illustrating the winter activities on fen and drain
Crested China. Part of the collection donated to the museum in 2023 by Chris Pope of Chatteris. A cabinet full of crested china ware, mainly produced by the Goss family, who in the late 19th Century created numerous little pottery knick-knacks crested with almost every town in the UK. Chatteris has the town sign and two versions of the Abbey seal. It is estimated that at one time 95% of households had a piece of crested china on the mantelpiece!
