This list of museums in Norfolk, 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.
Many of these museums are members of Museums Norfolk (formerly the Museums in Norfolk Group). Museums Norfolk is the representative organisation for museums in the county, and its membership includes museums from both Norfolk Museums Service (NMS) and independent museums. Details of each member museum, opening times and events are given on its website www.museumsnorfolk.org.uk.
| Name | Image | Town/City | Region | Type | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Military | History of the 100th Bomb Group at RAF Thorpe Abbotts in World War II | ||||
| 389th Memorial Exhibition Museum | Military | website, history of RAF Hethel and the 389th Bombardment Group, open on specific days | |||
| Local | website, Tudor merchant's house with local history and period rooms displays | ||||
| Railway | Heritage miniature railway and museum with Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway memorabilia and artefacts | ||||
| Bishop Bonner's Cottage Museum | Local | website, local history, archaeology, operated by the Dereham Antiquarian Society | |||
| Historic house | Operated by the National Trust, Jacobean stately home with reflecting four centuries of use, museum about use by RAF Oulton in World War II | ||||
| Military | Life in England (the Home Front) during World War II and Dad's Army | ||||
| Technology | Steam railway engines, tractors and other vehicles | ||||
| Education | Centre of the longest running strike in British history, between 1914 and 1939 | ||||
| Transportation | Fine and rare veteran, vintage, classic, sports and touring automobiles and motorcycles, bicycles, horse-drawn vehicles, pedal cars and other related items | ||||
| Religious | Operated by English Heritage, history and remains of the medieval priory | ||||
| Industry | Exhibits about Charles Burrell & Sons manufacturers of traction engines, agricultural machinery, steam trucks wagons and tram engines | ||||
| Aviation | Military and civilian aircraft, history of aviation in Norfolk | ||||
| Historic house | website, merchant's house with historic interiors dating from the 13th to the 18th centuries, and five-storey Elizabethan tower | ||||
| Collectors World | Multiple | Currently closed,[1] includes Magical Dickens Experience with Victorian period street tableaux, photos and equipment of James Lafayette, Aero Museum with aero engines from Rolls-Royce and Armstrong Siddeley, rooms about author Barbara Cartland, Admiral Horatio Nelson, actress Liza Goddard, the 1960s, telephones, horse-drawn carts and carriages, farming and household memorabilia, an old cobblers shop, and antique and unusual dolls | |||
| Food | website, store and museum of Colman's mustard memorabilia | ||||
| Railway | World War II period station and museum for the Mid-Norfolk Railway | ||||
| Cromer Museum | Local | website, local history, culture, geology, Victorian fisherman's cottage display | |||
| Maritime | Exhibits about the merchants, customs men and smugglers of Lynn, Horatio Nelson and George Vancouver | ||||
| Media/Local | website, exhibits about Dad's Army and its links with Thetford | ||||
| Mill | Early 19th-century restored windmill, currently closed | ||||
| Local | website, local history | ||||
| Historic house | website, reflects different periods from the Elizabethan to the Victorian eras | ||||
| Fakenham Museum of Gas and Local History | Industry | website, information, former gasworks used in the manufacture of gas from coal, displays of gas-powered lighting, heating, cooking and domestic equipment | |||
| Historic house | Operated by the National Trust, 17th-century country house with Jacobean exterior and sumptuous Georgian interior | ||||
| Fishermen's Heritage Centre | Maritime | website, information, Sheringham's private lifeboats, including the Henry Ramey Upcher, the fishermen who crewed them and the lives they led, Peter Coke Shell Gallery[2] | |||
| Technology | Collection of large stationary steam engines | ||||
| Art | Includes Fusion, a digital screen gallery for art | ||||
| Mill | |||||
| Historic house | Operated by English Heritage, early 17th-century merchants' houses later sub-divided into tenements | ||||
| Ecology | Green energy (including solar and wind power), transportation options without oil, and organic gardening | ||||
| Green Quay | Multiple | website, environment and natural history of the Ouse Wash, history of shipping and trading | |||
| Multiple | website, historic workhouse, heritage farm, agriculture and rural life displays, costumes, steam engines, historic farm machinery and farming implements | ||||
| Gunton Sawmill | Erpingham | Industrial | website, preserved saw mill in working order owned by the Norfolk Windmills Trust, run by the Norfolk Industrial Archeology society | ||
| Harleston Museum | Local | https://archive.today/20150317225629/http://www.visiteastofengland.com/Harleston-Harleston-Museum/details/?dms=3&venue=0227282 information], local history | |||
| Multiple | 18th-century Palladian style country house with opulent interiors, walled gardens, Bygones Museum with toys, household implements, agricultural tools, vintage cars and steam engines, and an exhibition on the history of farming | ||||
| Mill | Operated by the National Trust, drainage windmill pump | ||||
| Historic house | 18th-century Palladian-style country house built for Britain's first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole | ||||
| John Jarrold Printing Museum | History | website, historic printing equipment | |||
| King's Lynn Arts Centre | Art | website, performing and visual arts centre with galleries | |||
| Mill | Working early 19th-century watermill | ||||
| Maritime | Last surviving steam-powered herring drifter museum ship | ||||
| Local | website, local history, archaeology, social history | ||||
| Marshland Maritime Museum | Military | website, open by appointment only, naval memorabilia | |||
| Railway | Headquarters and museum for the heritage railway | ||||
| Local | Local history, lifeboats, fishing industry | ||||
| Military | History and memorabilia of RAF Weybourne, Suffolk and Norfolk Yeomanry, naval and civilian ship models, weapons, missiles, tanks, aircraft and other military vehicles | ||||
| Mundesley Maritime Museum | Local | website, local maritime heritage and social history | |||
| Local | website, local industries, culture, people's daily lives | ||||
| Museum of Straw Work and Crafts | Art | information, items crafted from straw including corn dollies, marquetry, Swiss straw lace, plaits, embroidery, jewellery | |||
| Local | website, boats, heritage of the Broadland waterways | ||||
| Military | Life and naval history of Admiral Horatio Nelson | ||||
| Norfolk Motorcycle Museum | Transportation | website, motorcycles from the 1920s to the 1960s | |||
| Military | website, Cold War militaria including Main Battle Tanks, armoured personnel carriers, small arms, military memorabilia and uniforms | ||||
| Art | Performing arts centre with exhibit galleries | ||||
| Multiple | Tours of the castle, dungeon and battlements, exhibits of fine and decorative arts including costume, textiles, jewelry, glass, ceramics and silverware, exhibits of archaeology, Ancient Egypt, natural history, Anglo Saxon and Viking artifacts | ||||
| Religious | Visitor centre with exhibits about the cathedral and art exhibits | ||||
| Old Gaol House & Regalia Rooms | Kings lynni | Multiple | website, 1930s police station, old jail cells, city treasures and regalia | ||
| Historic house | Operated by the National Trust, 15th-century moated country house | ||||
| Peter Coke Shell Gallery | North Norfolk | Art | website, sculptures and arrangements formed from seashells from around the world, adjacent to Fishermen's Heritage Centre | ||
| Military | website, located at RAF Neatishead, history of the military radar station in World War II and the Cold War | ||||
| RAF Sculthorpe Heritage Centre | Military | website, Learn about the stories of East Anglias only USAF Atomic Drop bomb base. | |||
| Maritime | website, Cromer lifeboat crews and their most famous coxswain Henry Blogg | ||||
| Military | Regimental artefacts and memorabilia | ||||
| Art | Part of the University of East Anglia, collections include modern art, art from Africa, the Pacific, the Americas, Asia, Egypt, medieval Europe and the ancient Mediterranean, Art Nouveau decorative art, abstract and constructivist art, architecture and design | ||||
| Historic house | Private home of the British Royal Family, includes late 19th-century house with furnishings, Sandringham Museum with royal collection of gifts, vehicles, ceramics, photographs and memorabilia | ||||
| Seething Control Tower Museum | Military | website, located at Seething Airfield, history of the 448th Fighter-Bomber Group at RAF Seething in World War II | |||
| Natural history | website, seashells, fossils, birds' eggs, agate ware, local archaeological finds | ||||
| Mill | website, early 19th-century windmill | ||||
| Firefighting | website | ||||
| Norwich | Norwich | Historic house | Tudor and Stuart period rooms | ||
| Technology | Steam traction engines, rollers, a wagon and a showman's engine | ||||
| Local | website, local history and culture | ||||
| Technology | Steam engines, organs and fairground attractions | ||||
| Maritime | Area fishing, shipbuilding and other maritime trades, merchant trade and lifesaving, herring fishing and curing | ||||
| Toad Hole Cottage | Local | website, information, home and working life on the marshes of The Broads in the early 20th century | |||
| Prison | website, 12th-century medieval former merchant's house turned into a prison | ||||
| Maritime | website, exhibits about the historic fishing community | ||||
| Religious | website, ruins of the medieval abbey, museum with exhibits on the abbey and local history | ||||
| Railway | Historic railway station under restoration | ||||
| Railway | Railway artefacts of the North Norfolk Railway | ||||
| Historic house | Restored Georgian country house and park | ||||
| Local | Local history, culture, former prison, police station and courthouse | ||||
| Railway | Features collection of railway memorabilia | ||||