The Chatteris
museum collection was first started in 1942 as a result of an interest in local
history by Mr Charles Dobb, then clerk to the council. Initially his little
collection was housed in a small glass cabinet in the old Urban District
Council offices in Grove House, but the collection continued to grow.
In 1963 a complete room full of display
cabinets was officially opened as
In 1995 the museum moved to its present
location into what had been the doctors’ surgery in
The Museum is owned and managed by a team of Trustees on
behalf of all Chatteris residents.
It is run on a day-to-day basis by a dedicated team of
volunteer helpers under the leadership of the curator, Jenny Furlong.
At the museum you can discover the ancient town of
With an extensive collection of artefacts, documents,
maps and photographs, the museum welcomes all visitors including those wanting
to carry out their own research.
If groups wish to visit the Museum outside our normal opening
times please contact us to make special arrangements.
The museum is also frequently visited by
local schools and, if the pupils are studying a particular period in history,
we will do our best to put out additional relevant displays.
We also have loans boxes that are available
for schools and reminiscence groups to borrow. These contain items, old and new
that can be handled together with photographs and text relating to the various
subjects. The boxes include ‘Fenland Farming’, ‘Toys Old and New, Geology’, ‘World
War Two’, ‘Schools Through The Ages’ and ‘How We Used
To Live in The Victorian Period’.