Dover Museum &amp; Bronze Age Boat Gallery

🎶New display: Dover Choral Union 🎶 In 1913, Harry James Taylor, the first conductor of #Dover Choral Union, was presented with a "coming of age" souvenir book filled with concert programmes to celebrate his 21st year in that role.

This new display explores the early years of Dover Choral Union, now Dover Choral Society, through key figures who performed with the choir.

The case is located on the ground floor of the Dover Museum and Bronze Age Boat gallery. Admission to Dover Museum and all exhibitions is free and open at the following times: April-September: Monday-Saturday 9.30am-5pm Sunday 10am-3pm October-March: Monday-Saturday 9.30am-5pm

What better place than a museum to showcase beards on #WorldBeardDay. This neatly sculpted beard and gloriously styled moustache belongs to William Brooke, tenth Baron Cobham (1527-1597), a nobleman, diplomat, and most notably Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and Constable of #Dover Castle.

Brooke’s beard was finely captured by Antonis Mor (1512–1516–c.1576), a Netherlandish portrait painter. Mor was a successful court portraitist, whose career that took him to England, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, where a number of other bearded portraits expanded his portfolio.

The portrait of William Brooke, tenth Baron Cobham (1527-1597), can be found on permanent display in Dover Museum’s history gallery. Admission to Dover Museum is free and open 9.30am-5pm Monday to Saturday, 10am-3pm Sunday.

The Lord Warden was in charge of the five major ports on the South East coast of England: #Dover, Sandwich, Hythe, New Romney and Hastings.

Appointed 16th of December 1558, Brooke held the post of Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports until his death on 6th of March 1597 making him the longest serving Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports to date.

A tail for #InternationalDogDay As Gertrude Ederle was being greased for her historic swim across the English Channel, a small dog leapt from her support tug boat and swam to shore. The dog then gladly drank from the can of lanolin used for greasing much to the amusement of the spectators on shore.

Gertrude Ederle's historic achievement as the first woman to successfully swim the Channel is marked 100 years on by the exhibition 'Queen of the Waves' celebrating her legacy at Dover Museum, running until 7th November 2026.

Image provided courtesy of Catharine Loxton. The image and caption is taken from an annotated album with photographs taken by spectators of this historic event. This album is kindly on loan to the museum for the exhibition.

Pictured is Gertrude Ederle's trainer Thomas William Burgess greasing Gertrude with some canine assistance on a beach in Cap Gris Nez prior to her successful Channel swim.

100 years ago, on this day, at 7:08 am, Gertrude ‘Trudy’ Ederle entered the water near Cape Gris-Nez. At 9:40pm she walked out of the water at Kingsdown Beach as the first woman to swim the English Channel, beating the men's record by nearly two hours. #OnThisDay

The photograph shows Gertrude walking along the beach at Cape Gris-Nez in the moments leading up to her swim. She is wearing a two-piece bathing suit and goggles she had designed for the swim.

Gertrude (Trudy) Ederle was an American competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and world record-holder in five events and one of the best-known American sports personages of the 1920s. Trudy completed her Channel swim at just 20 years old.

31 July

On 6th August 1926, at 7:08am Gertrude Ederle entered the water near Cape Gris-Nez. At 9:40pm she walked out of the water at Kingsdown Beach as the first woman to swim the English Channel. For the 100th anniversary of this achievement, an exhibition will be opening 6th of August at #Dover Museum.

28 July

📣Last Chance to See📣 Front Line Town: Life in Dover During World War Two After the fall of France in June 1940, Dover was now on the front line against Nazi Germany. This exhibition explores the challenges of daily life in Dover during World War Two. Exhibition closes after August 2nd.

28 July

The exhibition is curated by Edd Hodsdon, Heritage MA student at Canterbury Christ Church University. Edd is also a volunteer at Dover Museum. There are a number of objects from World War Two on display and an opportunity to explore more objects in 3D using QR codes.

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28 July

A digital version of the exhibition will still be available to see after this week. Check out this page to explore the exhibition online: storymaps.arcgis.com/.../de25849c....

REPLE! Fill it up again! With the warmer weather upon us we wanted to raise this celebratory motto beaker on display at the Roman Painted House #Dover Although I wouldn't recommend filling this particular beaker up... (1/4)

The form is a called black slipped ware which reflects how the terracotta beaker is decorated by dipping the clay vessel into a black coloured slip, a thin solution of clay suspended in water, before firing it. The beaker is thought to be from the Moselle Valley near Trier 180AD-250AD. (3/4)

📅This beaker among other archaeological finds can be seen at the Roman Painted House open Saturdays 10-4pm. 📅Additional opening days: June: Friday 26th July: Tuesday 7th, Wednesday 8th and Friday 10th 📅From July 23rd to August 30th the house will be open Thursday to Sunday every week (4/4)

Motto beakers had cheery Latin exhortations painted in white and were used for social gatherings. The surviving decoration on this example has the letters R, E, and what appears to be the top part of a P which could be part of the exhortation REPLE ‘Fill it up again’. (2/4)

Dover Museum & Bronze Age Boat Gallery reposted

On Saturday 30th May, come to Dover Museum to make your own standing paper doll that you can dress up! 📅Saturday 30th May 🕙Drop in 10.00-3.00 📍#Dover Museum Free craft activity

27 May

New exhibition open from today! What people Wore 🧵This exhibition takes a look at clothing and accessories over the centuries with many examples on display along with artworks that show fashion from different eras.🪡 📍#Dover Museum's Special Exhibition Gallery on the middle floor. Free Entry.

22 May

This bank holiday weekend, 23rd-25th May come along to Maison Dieu #Dover's Stone Masonry festival: ➡See stone mason Carrie Horwood's progress on sculpting replicas of Deal Man ➡Suggest names for the Deal Man replicas ➡Make your very own clay Deal Man!

22 May

(1/8) Who is Deal Man? Deal Man is an Iron Age carved chalk figurine on display at Dover Museum. He was discovered in 1984 during excavations by the #Dover Archaeological Group ahead of construction work on a site adjacent to St Richards Road in, #Deal.

(7/8) Dover Museum is looking to get Deal Man conserved so that he remains well preserved for the future.

catseyecarving.co.ukDeal Chalk manI have been commissioned by Dover Museum to carve a replica of a small Iron age sculpture, he was found during an Archaeological dig in Deal, Kent, during the 1980’s. Catherine, the Deal man&…

(8/8) In an exciting addition to this, replicas are being carefully carved by stone mason Carrie Horwood using repurposed chalk from Dover so that these replicas can be loaned out to other places. Check out Carrie’s preparation work in her blog here www.catseyecarving.co.uk/2026/05/deal...

(5/8) The chamber in which Deal Man was found may possibly have been a shrine. There are parallels with other European discoveries to both to the pit and its chamber and the presence of figurines in pits which have been interpreted as used for rituals.

(6/8) There are examples that Deal Man himself can be compared to, but the discovery of the chalk figurine is very rare.

(3/8) A small niche was found high up in the north-west wall of the chamber. As with Deal Man, this niche had a compensating sloping base that was observed likely housed the Deal Man figure.

(4/8) The figure is thought to be of Roman date and the style of Deal Man and the focus on the head conforms to Celtic artistic tradition, but the simple form may be traced to the pre-Roman European Iron Age.

(2/8) Amongst the Roman pits excavated was a chalk-cut shaft. This was around 2.5 meters deep and gave access to a small underground oval chamber. About 0.4 metres above this chamber amongst fill was Deal Man. Image provided courtesy of Dover Archaeological Group.

On Saturday 30th May, come to Dover Museum to make your own standing paper doll that you can dress up! 📅Saturday 30th May 🕙Drop in 10.00-3.00 📍#Dover Museum Free craft activity

(1/8) On this day 14 May 1919 Nurse Edith Cavell's body arrived at the Promenade Pier in #Dover. Edith was executed under German military law for helping British and Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium. The postcards are of the cortege that accompanied her coffin through Dover.

(7/8) The day before her execution, Edith said "Patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone." This quote is captured on her memorial statue in St Martin's Place London, adjacent to the first site for the headquarters of the British Red Cross.

(8/8) After the war Edith’s remains were exhumed and returned to Britain, sailing from Ostend aboard the destroyer HMS Rowena and landing at the Promenade Pier in Dover on the 14th May 1919.

(5/8) Whilst working under German-occupied Brussels, Edith became part of a network of people sheltering and aiding British and Allied soldiers and military aged civilians to cross the border to the neutral territory in the Netherlands.

(6/8) Edith was arrested for these actions, court martialled under German Military law and sentenced to death. Although legal under international law, her execution sparked outrage in Britain and other nations.

(3/8) In 1907, Edith was appointed as Matron in Brussels at Belgium's first training hospital and school for nurses. She continued to work in Brussels and was known for her pioneering nursing work. Brussels was occupied by Germany from 20th August 1914.

(4/8) This nursing school became a Red Cross hospital, treating casualties from both sides as well as civilians.

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick

(2/8) Edith Louisa Cavell (1865–1915) was a British nurse who is celebrated for treating wounded soldiers from both sides during the First World War and for helping British and Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium.

Dover Museum & Bronze Age Boat Gallery reposted

@mrcwarwick.bsky.social

7 May

All hail to the Bluesky GLAM! Now that @romanpalace.bsky.social is back, a shout out to the galleries, libraries, archives and museums who keep posting on - from the Absolute Units to single skeeters Find old friends and new below - sharing fresh finds, joy & a bit of respite go.bsky.app/Ms7endH

30 Apr

📣New Exhibition📣 Front Line Town: Life in Dover During World War Two After the fall of France in June 1940, #Dover was now on the front line against Nazi Germany. This exhibition explores the challenges of daily life in Dover during World War Two.