About
Storrington and District Museum opened in April 2000 to mark the millennium, and it covers not just Storrington itself but the ring of villages beneath the northern scarp of the South Downs: Amberley, Ashington, Bury, Cootham, Parham, Sullington, Thakeham, Washington, West Chiltington and Wiggonholt. That deliberate breadth is the museum's strength. These parishes shared a landscape, a road, a market and a set of trades, and treating them together makes far more sense of the district than any one village history could.
The collection begins with local archaeology, since this stretch of the Sussex greensand and chalk has been occupied continuously for thousands of years, and the Downs above are thick with barrows, field systems and trackways. From there the displays move through the medieval parishes and their churches - the museum holds articles from local churches, including material displaced by restoration and reordering - and into the long agricultural history of a district that lived by sheep, corn and the seasonal movement between hill and weald.
Domestic and working life dominates the twentieth-century material: the shops and trades of Storrington's square and streets, the schools, the chapels and clubs, the arrival of piped water and electricity, and the two world wars recorded through the men and women of named families. The museum also keeps a library of local history and has access to old maps, which makes it the first stop for anyone researching a house, a field name or an ancestor in these parishes.
It is housed in The Old School on School Lane, is fully accessible with level access and adapted toilets, and opens on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays with other times by appointment. Entry is free. Like most museums of this kind it is run by volunteers whose knowledge of the district is not written down anywhere else, and a visit is much better for asking them something.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- The museum opens Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 10:00-16:00 - other days are by appointment only.
- Telephone 01903 740188 to confirm arrangements over bank holidays and at Christmas.
- Entry is free; the museum is run by volunteers and depends on donations.
- Researchers should ring ahead and book time with the local history library and maps.
- The building is fully accessible with level access and adapted toilets.
- Ask about a specific village - the collection covers ten parishes, and much is not on display.
- Combine with Parham House or a walk up onto the Downs; the escarpment is about forty minutes on foot.
- Park in the village centre car parks rather than on School Lane.
Highlights
Ten parishes under one roof
The museum's remit stretches well beyond Storrington to Amberley, Ashington, Bury, Cootham, Parham, Sullington, Thakeham, Washington, West Chiltington and Wiggonholt, and that decision shapes everything in it.
These parishes shared the spring line beneath the Downs, the same markets and the same trades, and their histories only make sense together: a farm in one, a mill in another, a school serving three. Visitors researching any of these villages will find material here that no single parish collection holds, and the displays are arranged so that the district reads as a working unit rather than a list of neighbours.
Local archaeology from the Downs
The chalk ridge above Storrington carries some of the densest prehistoric archaeology in southern England - barrows, field systems, flint workings and trackways - and the greensand below has produced its own finds. The museum's archaeological displays gather worked flint, pottery and metalwork recovered locally, with the context that makes them legible: which parish, which field, which excavation or chance discovery.
For visitors about to walk on the Downs, half an hour here transforms what the earthworks on the skyline actually mean, and the volunteers can usually say who found what and when.
Articles from the local churches
Among the museum's more unusual holdings is material from the parish churches of the district, including items displaced by Victorian restoration and later reordering: fittings, textiles, plate, memorial fragments and documents that would otherwise have been dispersed or lost. Because the churches themselves remain in use, this material is often the only surviving evidence of how those buildings looked and were used before modernisation.
The displays connect each item to its parish, and taken together they form a quiet history of religious practice across ten villages from the medieval period to the twentieth century.
The Old School building
The museum occupies The Old School on School Lane, which gives the collection an appropriate home: village schools were often the first public building a rural parish built for itself, and their records - registers, log books, photographs, punishment books - are among the richest sources for ordinary local life.
The museum holds material on the schools of the district as well as occupying one, and the log books in particular record epidemics, harvest absences, weather, war and the daily struggle to keep children in class, which is social history of an unusually direct kind.
Collections
Storrington and District Museum covers Storrington together with Amberley, Ashington, Bury, Cootham, Parham, Sullington, Thakeham, Washington, West Chiltington and Wiggonholt. Holdings include local archaeology from the Downs and greensand, articles from the district's parish churches, agricultural tools and farm records, school registers and log books, shop and trade material, photographs of the villages across the twentieth century, and personal and documentary material from both world wars.
The museum also maintains a library of local history and access to old maps, used for house, family and field-name research, and opens by appointment for researchers outside its normal Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday hours.
Before the Villages
Archaeology of the Downs and greensand, from worked flint to Roman and Saxon material.
Parish and Church
The medieval parishes of the district and material rescued from their churches.
Working the Land
Sheep, corn, mills and village trades, and the twentieth-century mechanisation that ended them.
Village Lives
Shops, schools, clubs and both world wars across the ten parishes.
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.