About
Ottery St Mary Museum is a volunteer-run community museum occupying a historic building in the centre of this ancient East Devon market town. The museum explores the rich and distinctive history of Ottery St Mary and its surrounding parishes, from prehistoric and Roman finds through the medieval splendour of St Mary's Church — one of Devon's finest — to the town's famous and fiery tradition of tar barrel rolling that takes place every year on Guy Fawkes Night.
Ottery St Mary holds a special place in English literary history as the birthplace of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, born on 21 October 1772, the son of the local vicar. The poet who gave the world The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan spent his formative years in the town, and the museum celebrates this connection through displays exploring his life, works, and the landscape that shaped his imagination. The rolling hills, streams, and wooded combes of the Otter valley clearly left their mark on one of the Romantic movement's most visionary poets.
Beyond Coleridge, the museum reflects the character of a market town that has retained much of its medieval identity. St Mary's Church, collegiate in character and dating largely from the fourteenth century, dominates the townscape. The museum explores the church's extraordinary history — its astronomical clock, its bosses and misericords, and the remarkable Grandisson family tomb — alongside the agricultural, commercial, and social life of the town through the centuries. The Guy Fawkes tar barrel rolling tradition, unique to Ottery and dating from at least the eighteenth century, receives particular attention as one of England's most spectacular and enduring popular customs.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- Visit St Mary's Church as well as the museum — it is one of Devon's finest medieval buildings and is a short walk away.
- If you have any connection to Coleridge or the Romantic poets, this is a pilgrimage destination; the town retains much of its medieval character.
- The museum is seasonal (Easter to October) — confirm opening before visiting outside those months.
- Ottery St Mary on Guy Fawkes Night (5 November) is extraordinary but extremely crowded; visiting the museum in advance gives context to the tar barrel tradition.
- The town centre has independent cafes and a good butcher — allow time for exploring beyond the museum.
- Bus connections from Exeter are reasonable; the museum is walkable from the town centre bus stops.
- The surrounding Otter Valley countryside is excellent walking territory — OS Explorer map 115 covers the area.
- Photography inside the museum is generally permitted; the church adjacent has remarkable medieval details worth photographing.
Highlights
Samuel Taylor Coleridge — Birthplace Displays
Ottery St Mary holds a treasured place in English literary history as the birthplace of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, born on 21 October 1772 in the vicarage of St Mary's Church where his father was vicar. The museum's displays explore Coleridge's early life in the town, his family background, and the formative influence the East Devon landscape exerted on his imagination.
Quotations from his poetry recall the river, hills, and combes of the Otter valley that shaped the mind that would later conjure Xanadu and the Ancient Mariner.
The Tar Barrel Rolling Tradition
Every Guy Fawkes Night, Ottery St Mary holds one of England's most extraordinary popular customs: the rolling of flaming tar barrels through the town's streets. Participants carry burning barrels on their shoulders as crowds line the pavements, a tradition that dates to at least the eighteenth century and possibly earlier.
The museum documents this spectacular and dangerous custom — its origins, its rituals, its casts of carriers (divided by family and street), and its survival into the present day as the town's most fiercely defended heritage.
St Mary's Church — Devon's Finest
The great collegiate church of St Mary's dominates the town from its hilltop position and is one of the finest medieval churches in Devon. The museum holds interpretive material about the church's history — its fourteenth-century construction under Bishop Grandisson of Exeter, who modelled it on Exeter Cathedral in miniature, its remarkable astronomical clock (one of very few medieval examples in England), its painted rood screen, and the extraordinary Grandisson tomb with its effigy.
The church itself is a short walk from the museum.
Otter Valley Archaeology
The River Otter and its valley have been occupied since prehistoric times, and the museum holds finds from Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Roman periods recovered from the surrounding parishes. Flint tools, bronze implements, Roman pottery, and coins tell the story of continuous human occupation in a landscape that remained substantially agricultural well into the twentieth century.
The finds place Ottery St Mary within the wider archaeological story of East Devon.
Collections
Ottery St Mary Museum holds the principal local history collection for this East Devon market town and its surrounding parishes. The collection encompasses prehistoric, Roman, and medieval archaeology from the Otter valley; social and economic history of the market town; documentation of the unique tar barrel rolling tradition; and material relating to the town's most celebrated son, the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Military and wartime material, Victorian and Edwardian photography, and agricultural artefacts complement the core collection.
The museum also holds interpretive material relating to the medieval church of St Mary, one of Devon's finest buildings.
Coleridge in Ottery
Dedicated displays on the life and works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, exploring his Ottery childhood and the landscape that shaped his poetry.
The Tar Barrels
Documentary and photographic record of the unique Guy Fawkes tar barrel rolling tradition, unique to Ottery St Mary.
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.