Geology Site Account
Southend District, SOUTHEND, Southend Central Museum, TQ881861
Locate Southend Central Museum on map
Southend’s original museum collections were formed from donations to the Southend Institute in Clarence Road. They found another home in 1906 when they were transferred to the first floor landing of the newly built central library, a fine Edwardian building in Victoria Avenue. When Prittlewell Priory opened as a museum in 1922 the collections were moved there and William Pollitt was appointed Borough Librarian and Curator. Pollitt published several guides to the prehistoric antiquities of the Southend district which are a useful source of information today. The library closed in 1974 when the new central library was built and work began on converting the old library building into the museum we know today. The present museum was officially opened in 1981.
Geology Site Map
Locate Southend Central Museum on map
Southend’s original museum collections were formed from donations to the Southend Institute in Clarence Road. They found another home in 1906 when they were transferred to the first floor landing of the newly built central library, a fine Edwardian building in Victoria Avenue. When Prittlewell Priory opened as a museum in 1922 the collections were moved there and William Pollitt was appointed Borough Librarian and Curator. Pollitt published several guides to the prehistoric antiquities of the Southend district which are a useful source of information today. The library closed in 1974 when the new central library was built and work began on converting the old library building into the museum we know today. The present museum was officially opened in 1981.
The museum has displays of local history, wildlife and geology. There is a collection of fossils from the Southend area which is rich in Ice age mammals from the former brickfields. Also of interest is the Essex Field Club’s mineral collection and a large collection of minerals assembled by the late Arthur Davies of Thundersley between 1973 and 1984. The building also has a planetarium.
The museum also has a large collection of Palaeolithic hand-axes and other flint tools from various other sites in the district but most were collected during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and information about their exact localities is unfortunately often lacking.
|
|
Geology Site Map