Research

There is a great interest these days in family history and finding out how our ancestors lived, whether this is in our home town or in another place we have connections to, or even just visiting. At Exmouth Museum & Heritage Centre we do have resources and we are planning to enable research in improved ways. So let us lay out for you what is available and what we forsee being available in the near future.

We have informative displays in the Museum on many subjects with plenty of text to read and all available for the entrance fee of £2.50 per adult. If you are researching a particular subject we will waive the fee a second time to enable you to take it all in.

We have a collection of Folders in Reception on many Exmouth topics. They contain written histories, newspaper clippings and photographs of Schools, Lace, the Docks, World Wars, famous People, Businesses, Hotels, Authors, Victoria Cross holders, Lympstone, Archaeology and many more. These are FREE to browse through and you don’t need to pay the entrance fee to the Museum to do so. There isn’t a separate area to sit and study in quiet. You can sit at the end of the reception desk or on a chair. In the future we intend to create a dedicated study room.

We have a lot of material in our Archives which is not on display to the public. However, on occasion we have made selected boxes available to be searched/perused with the permission of the Curator and under initial supervision. Similarly, we will not charge you the entrance fee more than once. If you find what you are looking for a donation would be welcome. If you are interested we may be able to offer you conservation training in handling artefacts.

Questions & Queries

Our volunteers are happy to try to answer your questions when you are in the Museum. Stewards’ knowledge does vary and we may write down your query to answer by email, or ask you to email us. As well as the Curator we have a small panel of local experts who can research for you and answer your queries. There is an introductory fee of £15 for this. If extensive research is undertaken we would expect a further donation. If someone knows the answer straight away and its a simple query we may not charge you. Please understand that volunteers at the Museum have elected to be there for their shift but research done at home using their own internet and software is extra. We will ask for information if we think the use of the research might be for commercial purposes. In these cases the charge will be £40.00