Woolpit and District Museum

In the mid 1980s Woolpit History Group started field-walking throughout the parish. After several years three Roman sites and eight Medieval sites had been found and confirmed. In 1983 the Parish Council asked if it would be feasible to display the group’s findings and a store-room on the upper floor of the Woolpit Institute was made available. Thus the Woolpit and District Museum was begun.

Because the room is quite small, indeed we think this is probably Suffolk’s smallest museum, some displays are changed annually, and over the years there have been at least seventy different exhibitions explaining the history of Woolpit from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day. Displays are changed annually, and over the years there have been at least seventy different exhibitions explaining the history of Woolpit from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day.

There are two permanent displays.

The first shows the famous Woolpit Brickworks presented as a 3D model of the site as it was in its later days, along with a collection of bricks, tiles, photos and various tools used in the trade. A booklet ‘The History of Woolpit Brickworks’ is available in the small shop.

The second is a reconstruction of a Victorian Kitchen with artefacts which might have been used in everyday life up to the 1920s.

The Museum is open every Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday from 2:00pm – 4:30pm from the beginning of April until the last week-end of September. We also open on Wednesday afternoons in August 1pm to 3.30pm.