Dartmouth Museum

14/10/2026

We've just analysed 250 comments from our visitors book over the last 12 months and we were bowled over by the wonderful feedback from our visitors from Dartmouth, Devon, the UK and beyond. It wasn't just that people found it a really interesting place to visit, but that they found the experience wonderful, the displays amazing, the models fabulous and the staff well informed and helpful - a winning combination! Come and see for yourself!

10/10/2026

If you are interested in dinghy sailing on the Dart - this is for you! Restoration of a Dart One Design dinghy. The fleet was active from 1923 to the 1960s, initially being supported enthusiastically by Vernon MacAndrew who donated 6 to the club fleet and BRNC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnBQwfzSCdo

Join us for the first episode of a six-part series as we begin the ...

06/10/2026

It was an honour to welcome surviving members of the MacAndrew family to the installation of a Blue Plaque in honour of Vernon MacAndrew at Paradise Point, his family home in Warfleet. Many thanks to Chris and Julie Jelf for their generous hospitality.

21/09/2026

Dartmouth's greatest moment ... D Day ... or the Armada ... or?

21/09/2026

Following up on the Museum's objects and photos of Lightships built by Philip & Son at Noss, we discovered this unique image of LV 90 Tongue lightship in 1935/6, in the collection of Vernon MacAndrew. There are very few colour images of lightships in Dartmouth, and this image also includes the Historic Ship Portwey, 100 years old next year, towing LV 90 out for sea trials. It also includes MacAndrew's motor yacht Campeador IV, used to support his yacht racing at regattas up and down the coast. Three historic vessels in one historic image.

11/09/2026

We are delighted to announce that Dartmouth Museum has been awarded an AIM Museum Fundamentals grant to support the conservation and development of the Vernon MacAndrew Photographic Archive.

The grant will help us conserve some of the most sensitive early colour photographs in this remarkable collection, train our team of volunteers, and improve the conditions in which the archive is stored and cared for.

It will also contribute to the creation of a new permanent exhibition at Dartmouth Museum, telling the story of Vernon MacAndrew, his photography and his extraordinary life.

We are enormously grateful for this support, which will help us safeguard the archive while making more of MacAndrew’s remarkable photographs accessible to the public.

AIM Museum Fundamentals funded by Pilgrim Trust and The Julia Rausing Trust.

10/09/2026

From 1935 Philip & Son built all but 3 of the lightships that protected shipping around British and Irish coasts- and several are still in service. We recently discovered a treasure trove of general arrangement drawings of these extraordinary vessels in our archive and with lightvesselsandlightships are building a listing of each of the 35 light vessels built in Dartmouth. See their site for more …
https://www.facebook.com/lightvesselsandlightships

23/08/2026

A Dartmouth-built yacht – still sailing nearly 90 years old - in Italy!

This week we were contacted from Italy with a question about Nocturne, a 53-foot wooden ketch built by Philip & Son at Noss Shipyard and launched in 1938, shown in the image below.

Nocturne is still sailing today, off the Italian coast. Her owner's son is writing a biography of the boat as a birthday present for his father and contacted the Museum to see what we could discover about her Dartmouth origins.

Quite a lot, as it turned out.

Within a week, our archive team was able to provide him with copies of Nocturne's original shipyard drawings, historic photographs and information about her construction and first owners – helping both with the story of the boat and her continuing restoration.

It's a lovely example of what lies within the Dartmouth Museum collections – and how records preserved many decades ago can suddenly become useful again.

So if you have a question about your boat, your house or your family with a connection to Dartmouth, get in touch with us.

You never know what we might discover.

09/07/2026

During WW2 national acts came to entertain the troops at the Guildhall - a Dartmouth team is recreating those evenings at the Flavel on Aug 1st, in 2 wonderful benefit performances. Using many photos and video from our archives it will be a show to remember!

03/07/2026

Great job reorganising and presenting our Museum library this week by our work experience students Isabel and Alexandra - what a difference they have made! Thanks very much indeed!

Dartmouth Museum library is open to Museum members and researchers on request.