About
Braunton and District Museum celebrates the distinctive heritage of a North Devon village that has been continuously inhabited since at least Saxon times and whose landscape encompasses some of the most remarkable natural and historical features in south-west England. The museum's collections tell the story of Braunton — its farming traditions, its crafts, its relationship with the sea, and its role in the twentieth century's defining military moment — through objects, photographs, and oral histories gathered from the local community over decades of devoted collecting.
Braunton occupies a unique position in the English landscape. The Great Field, which stretches south of the village, is one of only two surviving medieval open-field systems in England still in cultivation today. Laid out in the manner of the common fields that once covered most of lowland England before the enclosures of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Great Field preserves the ancient strip cultivation pattern in which individual farmers held scattered strips across a shared field. The museum documents this extraordinary survival and its significance for understanding medieval and early modern agricultural history.
To the north-west, Braunton Burrows forms one of the most extensive and ecologically important sand dune systems in Britain — so significant that it was designated as part of the North Devon UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. During the Second World War, the Burrows were chosen as the principal training ground in Britain for the amphibious assault operations that would culminate in the D-Day landings of June 1944. Thousands of American troops from the United States Army and US Navy conducted beach assault training here under live fire conditions, enduring casualties that prefigured the brutal reality of Omaha and Utah beaches in Normandy. The museum holds important collections relating to this wartime episode and the personal stories of both the American servicemen and the local civilians who witnessed their preparations.
Categories:
Plan Your Visit
💡 Visitor Tips
- Combine the museum with a walk or cycle to Braunton Burrows — follow the track from the village to see the dune system and the wartime memorial markers.
- Walk south from the village to see the Great Field's strip cultivation pattern — most impressive when crops are growing in summer.
- Braunton is served by buses from Barnstaple (30 minutes from Barnstaple rail station) — a convenient car-free approach.
- The Tarka Trail cycling route connects Braunton to Barnstaple and beyond, making it ideal for cyclists to combine with a museum visit.
- Croyde beach and Saunton Sands, both within 3 miles, make for a full day combining history and coastal scenery.
- The museum is run by volunteers and closes in winter (November to Easter) — check the website before travelling out of season.
- Refreshments are available in Braunton village — the Caen Street area has local cafés and pubs.
- Ask museum staff about walking routes to the specific dune areas used for American military training — they are well documented and some markers remain.
Highlights
Braunton Great Field — Medieval Landscape Survival
The museum devotes considerable space to Braunton Great Field, one of only two surviving examples in England of a medieval open-field system still cultivated in the traditional manner.
Established by Saxon settlers, the field is divided into hundreds of narrow strips, each held by a different farmer — a physical survival of the communal agricultural system that once covered most of lowland England.
Maps, photographs, and working implements document how this extraordinary landscape has been maintained across centuries of agricultural change, and why it has been listed as a scheduled ancient monument.
D-Day Training at Braunton Burrows
During 1943 and 1944, Braunton Burrows was transformed into the largest amphibious assault training ground in Britain. Thousands of American soldiers and sailors — many from the 1st, 4th, and 29th Infantry Divisions who would assault Omaha and Utah beaches on 6 June 1944 — practised beach landings under live ammunition conditions across the dunes and shoreline.
The museum holds photographs, equipment, personal letters, and oral histories from both American servicemen and local civilians, documenting a wartime episode that brought the preparations for the greatest military operation in history to a remote North Devon beach.
Braunton Burrows — UNESCO Biosphere
Braunton Burrows, stretching north-west of the village to the Taw-Torridge estuary, is one of the largest and most ecologically significant sand dune systems in Britain. Designated as part of the North Devon UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, it supports over 500 species of flowering plants and is an internationally important habitat for invertebrates and migratory birds.
The museum documents the natural history of the Burrows alongside its human history — the grazing rights, the military training, and the conservation effort that has protected this remarkable landscape.
Agricultural Heritage — Farming the Village
Braunton's farming history stretches from the Saxon period to the present, and the museum holds a substantial collection of agricultural implements, domestic equipment, and working tools that document the rhythms of the farming year. Ploughs, harrows, hand tools, dairy equipment, and harvest implements are displayed alongside photographs of farming families at work across the generations.
The particular challenges of farming on the coastal plain of North Devon — with its mild but often wet climate and distinctive soils — are explored through oral histories and documentary evidence.
Collections
The Braunton and District Museum holds collections covering agriculture, local trades, natural history, and social history relating to Braunton and the surrounding parishes of North Devon. The agricultural collection includes a comprehensive range of working tools, implements, and domestic equipment from the farming community spanning the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The Second World War collection holds photographs, personal effects, documents, and oral history recordings relating to the American military training at Braunton Burrows before the D-Day landings of 1944.
The natural history collection documents the ecology of Braunton Burrows and the Taw-Torridge estuary. The social history collection includes domestic objects, clothing, ephemera, and a substantial photographic archive of village life from the Victorian period to the present day.
Braunton Through the Ages
Main permanent display covering the history of Braunton from Saxon settlement through medieval and early modern farming, Victorian village life, and twentieth-century change.
The Road to D-Day
Dedicated display on American military training at Braunton Burrows during 1943-1944 and the village's contribution to the preparations for Operation Overlord.
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.