Dartmouth Museum

Welcome

Dartmouth Museum is a small but fascinating museum which occupies part of the historic Butterwalk, a terrace of rich merchants’ houses built around 1640.

Designed to national museum standards, it displays an extensive collection of artefacts, models, paintings and photographs relating to Dartmouth and the surrounding district.

The collections are, as you would expect, wide-ranging, but there is special attention to the maritime history of the town and its social and physical development. The maritime connection is seen in a fine collection of ship models, some in bottles, in the King’s Room.

Dartmouth Museum

Newcomen & The Engines that changed the world

Who was Thomas Newcomen, and how did become known as the ‘Father of the Steam Engine’? How did the incredible work of this Dartmouth-born man kickstart the birth of the Industrial Revolution? 

Alongside the World-Renowned David Hulse Collection of Atmospheric Model Steam Engines, explore the life of unsung hero, Thomas Newcomen, and how the birth of Dartmouth’s famous and much loved World of Steam came to be. 

Dartmouth Museum

Our Visitors

The Museum welcomes all visitors, whatever their reasons for coming. The dedicated and knowledgeable volunteer stewards are there to help with suggestions and answers to queries if necessary referring them back to our experts behind the scenes who can access our extensive archives. The Museum caters to children, whether they are at school parties or with parents. They can be placed in the stocks or search for answers to questionnaires or look through the microscopes, and even open the drawers below the displays to find other items. The Museum seeks to entertain and educate all visitors, young or old, whatever their interest.

Dartmouth Museum

Explore our Exhibitions & Collections

Elsewhere there are exhibits, as tapestry and video film, of the town’s contribution to D-Day in 1944. Three remarkable sons of Dartmouth are remembered: Thomas Newcomen, whose first practical steam engine ushered in the Industrial Revolution that changed the world; William Henley, a polymath ironmonger whose remarkable collection is displayed in a re-created Victorian study and Theodore Veale, the VC holder who showed outstanding and repeated bravery in rescuing a wounded officer at the Battle of the Somme.

The Jesse Room

Elsewhere in the Butterwalk is a plaster ceiling in high relief of the family tree of Jesus Christ. This representation is of international importance, thought to be the only one in plaster.

The Archives

Dartmouth Museum’s Archives cover a unique history throughout the ages, and searching our Archives you will immerse yourself with thousands of illustrations, paintings, photographs and videos.

The Shop

Our Shop is fully stocked with many unique souvenirs, including books, DVDs, guides, models, souvenir gifts, canvasses, and more! You can shop our available Books & DVDs online.

Dartmouth Museum

Visit Us

Why not come and explore Dartmouth’s fascinating history at Dartmouth Museum…

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