List of museums in Suffolk explained

This list of museums in Suffolk, England contains museums which are defined for this context as institutions (including nonprofit organizations, government entities, and private businesses) that collect and care for objects of cultural, artistic, scientific, or historical interest and make their collections or related exhibits available for public viewing. Also included are non-profit art galleries and university art galleries. Museums that exist only in cyberspace (i.e., virtual museums) are not included.

Museums

Name	Image	Town/City	Region	Type	Summary
			Suffolk Coastal	Local	website, located in the 16th century moot hall, local history, culture, trades, industry
Alfred Corry Lifeboat Museum			Waveney	Maritime	website, home to the former Southwold lifeboat "Alfred Corry", exhibits and artefacts about lifesaving and area maritime history
Amber Shop and Museum		Southwold	Waveney	Natural history	website, shop with museum about amber, and amber artefacts, carvings, jewellery and objets d'art
			St Edmundsbury	Art	website, performing arts centre, includes Apex Art Gallery for contemporary art exhibitions
			St Edmundsbury	Mill	Early 19th-century tower windmill
			Suffolk Coastal	Military	Features the Transmitter Block and "Magic Ear" exhibit about RAF Bawdsey and the radar activities during World War II and the Cold War
Beccles & District Museum			Waveney	Local	website, local history, culture
			Suffolk Coastal	Military	History of RAF Bentwaters in World War II and the Cold War
Brandon Heritage Centre			Forest Heath	Local	information, local history, culture
Bungay Museum			Waveney	Local	website, local history, culture
			Suffolk Coastal	Mill	Mid-19th-century tower windmill
			Ipswich	Multiple	Stately home with fine art, decorative arts in period room displays, toys and dolls
			St Edmundsbury	Local	14th-15th-century house with exhibits of local history and archaeology
		Ipswich	Ipswich	History	World War II underground air raid shelter with period supplies and artefacts
Dunwich Museum			Suffolk Coastal	Local	website, local history, culture, story of its decline due to coastal erosion
			Waveney	Transportation	Historic public transport vehicles including buses, trams and trolleybuses, a narrow gauge railway
Easton Farm Park			Suffolk Coastal	Farm	website
			St Edmundsbury	Historic house
			Suffolk Coastal	Multiple	Area military and social history, located in Landguard Fort
			Babergh	Historic house	Operated by the National Trust, 16th-century thatched cottage with exhibits about John Constable and his paintings of the area
			Suffolk Coastal	Historic house	Operated by English Heritage, 12th-century fortress remains, exhibits about its history
			Babergh	Art	Birthplace of artist Thomas Gainsborough, collection of his paintings, drawings and prints, temporary art exhibitions
		Bury St Edmunds	St Edmundsbury	Food	History, artefacts and shop of the brewery[1]
Halesworth Museum			Waveney	Local	website, local history, located in the Halesworth railway station
Haverhill Local History Centre			St Edmundsbury	Local	website, local history, located in the Haverhill Arts Centre
			Waveney	Mill	Early 19th century smock windmill
HMS Ganges Museum			Babergh	Maritime
		Bury St Edmunds	St Edmundsbury	Historic house	Operated by the National Trust, country house with collections of paintings, portraits, Regency furniture, Huguenot silver and more, gardens and park
Ipswich Art School Gallery		Ipswich	Ipswich	Art	website
Ipswich Maritime Trust Window Museum		Ipswich	Ipswich	Maritime	website, window exhibits of town's maritime heritage
		Ipswich	Ipswich	Multiple	Archaeology, Roman Britain and Ancient Egypt, local history, natural history, ethnography
		Ipswich	Ipswich	Transportation	Area transportation history, includes buses, trams, commercial vehicles, fire apparatus, mobile cranes, bicycles, horse-drawn vehicles, prams and wheelchairs, most manufactured in the area
			Babergh	Historic house	Elizabethan stately home and outbuildings with a rare breeds farm and gardens
			Suffolk Coastal	Military	Historic fort in use since the 16th century until the 1950s, also includes the Felixstowe Museum
			Suffolk Coastal	Local	https://lanmanmuseum.uk/ website, located at Framlingham Castle, local history, history of the castle, agriculture, social history
			Babergh	History	Operated by the National Trust, medieval guild hall with exhibits on the local cloth industry, farming and agriculture
			Mid Suffolk	Military	information
			Babergh	Historic house	website, 14th century Tudor house
			Suffolk Coastal	Industry	History of Richard Garrett & Sons a manufacturer of agricultural machinery, steam engines and trolleybuses.
			Waveney	Maritime	website, maritime artefacts, ship models, marine art, fishing and fishing industry, activities with the Royal Navy in WW II, shipwrights and coopers tools
Lowestoft Museum		Lowestoft	Waveney	Local	website, local history, 18th-century Lowestoft Porcelain, fossils, maritime heritage, industries, culture, social history
		Lowestoft	Waveney	Military	Area military history during World War I and World War II
Martlesham Heath Control Tower Museum			Suffolk Coastal	Aviation
Mechanical Music Museum at Cotton			Mid Suffolk	Music	website, collection of automatic musical instruments and cinema memorabilia
			Babergh	Historic house	Operated by the National Trust, stately home reflecting two centuries of family life, ties to Beatrix Potter
			Mid Suffolk	Railway	Heritage railway and museum with locomotives, artefacts
			Forest Heath	Local	website, local history, natural wildlife, the history of RAF Mildenhall, replicas of the Mildenhall Treasure, archaeology
			Waveney	Maritime	Sidewinder fishing trawler museum ship
		Bury St Edmunds	St Edmundsbury	Multiple	website, local history, culture, clocks and watches, costumes and textiles, fine and decorative arts, Suffolk Regiment gallery
			Mid Suffolk	Open air	Agricultural history of East Anglia, includes Eastbridge Windpump, agriculture machinery, scenes from the 1950s including shops scenes, kitchens, living rooms and a Victorian schoolroom, blacksmith forge, trades, watermill, chapel, carpentry and engineering workshops, steam engines
Museum of Knots and Sailors' Ropework		Ipswich	Ipswich	Maritime	website, open by appointment, art and skill of ropeworking
			Forest Heath	Sports	History of horse racing in Britain, houses the British Horseracing Hall of Fame and the Vestey Gallery of British Sporting Art
			Waveney	Aviation	Historic aircraft, history of RAF Bungay and regimental collections of the units that served there, area aviation history, aviation history and artefacts from World War II
			Suffolk Coastal	Historic house	Operated by English Heritage, medieval castle keep, houses the Orford Museum's' exhibits of local archaeological artefacts, the castle's history and borough regalia
			St Edmundsbury	Mill	Mid-19th-century tower windmill
			Suffolk Coastal	Military	History of the airfield's activities in World War II, in particular the 390th Bombardment Group and the British Resistance Organisation
Rougham Control Tower Museum		Bury St Edmunds	St Edmundsbury	Military
Royal Naval Patrol Service Museum		Lowestoft	Waveney	Maritime	website, history of the Royal Naval Patrol Service and their local activities in World War II
Saxmundham Museum			Suffolk Coastal	Local	information, local history, replica of local shops, jail cell, culture exhibits
			Suffolk Coastal	Mill	Operated by English Heritage, 19th century post windmill
		Bury St Edmunds	St Edmundsbury	Art	website, contemporary art gallery
			Waveney	Historic house	Tudor-Jacobean stately home, gardens
			Waveney	Maritime	Lighthouse museum
Southwold Museum		Southwold	Waveney	Local	website, local history, natural history, geology, industries, railway, maritime heritage, archaeology
Southwold Sailors' Reading Room			Waveney	Maritime	website, marine art, photos, models and other memorabilia of the local fishermen and sailors
		Bury St Edmunds	St Edmundsbury	Multiple	Historic cathedral, includes the Edmund Gallery for art exhibits, and the Cathedral Treasures exhibits of religious regalia and artefacts
			Babergh	Local	website, local history
		Bury St Edmunds	St Edmundsbury	Military	Regimental uniforms, weapons, artefacts and memorabilia
Suffolk Underwater Studies Museum			Suffolk Coastal	Maritime	website, marine archaeology, items recovered from the ocean, information
			Suffolk Coastal	Archaeology	Operated by the National Trust, artefacts from the ship burial of an Anglo-Saxon king and his most treasured possessions
			St Edmundsbury	Mill	Early 19th-century tower windmill
			St Edmundsbury	Mill	Mid 18th century post windmill
			St Edmundsbury	Open air	Recreated Anglo-Saxon village, archaeological artefacts found at the site, exhibits of Anglo-Saxon life and culture
Woodbridge Museum			Suffolk Coastal	Local	information, local history, archaeology, trade, roads, housing, religion and education
			Suffolk Coastal	Mill	Operational tide mill
Woolpit Museum			Mid Suffolk	Local	website, local history, brickmaking, located in a 17th-century cottage

Defunct museums

• Sue Ryder Foundation Museum, Cavendish, life and works of philanthropist Sue Ryder^[2]
• Suffolk Heavy Horse Museum, Woodbridge, history of the Suffolk Punch breed of draught horse^[3]
• William Clowes Printing Museum, Beccles^[4]

References

• Explore Suffolk's Museums

Notes and References

1. Web site: Greene King Brewery. Greene King. 22 March 2015.
2. Web site: Cavendish. Suffolk Tourist Guide. 22 March 2015. In 1979, the Queen Mother opened the Sue Ryder Foundation Museum in Cavendish, with exhibitions that included Lady Ryder's war uniforms and a reconstruction of her mother's room. Unfortunately the museum is no longer there..
3. Web site: The Museum. Suffolk Horse Society. 22 March 2015. Following the end of the lease at the Shire Hall, Woodridge, The Suffolk Heavy Horse Museum has now closed and the contents disbursed following guidelines set out by the Museum’s Association.. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20150402094649/http://suffolkhorsesociety.org.uk/the-museum/. 2 April 2015.
4. Web site: Fears over print museum's future. BBC News. 19 February 2004. 22 April 2022.