Royal Jubilee

Our new exhibition “From hats to haberdashery” is on now! Visitors can sample time travel by taking a trip into the past with telephones, typewriters and telly…

Research into the town’s history has shown that Westbury’s pre-war streets housed more than 100 shops offering everything from hats to haberdashery. You can view shop receipts and artefacts along with information about the cost of living, the clothes we wore, cinema programmes and even old-style light bulbs. Visitors can handle pre-decimal coinage, look at old toys, sit at a Victorian desk complete with mortar board or “dunce’s hat” and view 3d images through our early 20th-century stereoscope.

Housed on the first floor of the town library, visitors to the museum can also view a colourful illustrated history of the town on the walls flanking the staircase.

The museum’s next exhibition will celebrate the Royal Jubilee in June while in August it will host a visit from the town’s oldest resident – an exact replica skull of the pliosaur found in the clay pit near the town.