Sandwich Guildhall Museum

Attraction Sandwich

Where

Cattle Market
Sandwich
Kent
CT13 9AH

What3words location

anchors.sketching.wildfires

Useful info

  • Coach parties welcome
  • Family-friendly
  • Blue badge/ accessible parking bay/s
  • Off-site parking (charges may apply)
  • Wheelchair user friendly
  • Public transport nearby
  • Wedding venue
  • Guide dogs, Hearing dogs and Registered assistance dogs welcome

Admission

Free entry

Contact

Located in the heart of Sandwich in the town's 16th-century Guildhall, this atmospheric small museum tells the story of the town and surrounding areas from Mesolithic times to the modern day. The museum houses treasures such as an original Magna Carta (one of the most famous documents in the world), a Charter of the Forest, a 1st-century Roman bowl and other important artefacts telling the fascinating and colourful history of this Cinque Port town.

There is also a fabulous, wood-panelled, Tudor court room, much of it as it would have looked in the 1500s, with a stained-glass window depicting the arrival of Elizabeth I to the town in 1573.  

  • The museum is family friendly and part of the county-wide Wheels of Time scheme.
  • You can book onto tours of the museum, Courtroom and Guildhall building with the opportunity to get up close to museum artefacts.

The Guildhall is also home to the town's archives, the town council and Sandwich Visitor Information Centre. Function rooms are available to hire for special events.

A yellowing and damaged parchment with with ancient writing - an original Magna Carta
One of the museum's treasures - a Magna Carta (meaning 'The Great Charter'), a royal charter of rights issued by King John of England in 1215. This ground-breaking document established for the first time the principle that everybody, including the king, was subject to the law.