Cuckfield Museum

Cuckfield Museum

Cuckfield Museum is a small museum covering the story of Cuckfield village and its history. The museum features an ongoing programme of special events and exhibitions. Recent exhibitions include a display of historic objects found at local residences.

The museum offers genealogical records and facilities for tracing family history in the Cuckfield area. in addition, there are old Parish Magazines, postcards, old maps, and parish records.

A special display tells the story of Gideon Mantell, a local doctor who discovered the first dinosaur known to science, the Iguanodon, at a local quarry. The Iguanodon is sometimes known as The Cuckfield Dinosaur.

Artist Robert Bevan was brought up in Cuckfield, and the museum houses several paintings and drawings by Bevan, as well as details about the artist's life.

The museum is located in the Edith Payne Free Library on High Street, a Grade II listed building erected as Queen's Hall and Public Library in 1897 (the 'Queen' being a tribute to Queen Victoria, whose Diamond Jubilee was celebrated in that year).

The frontage borrows period details from historic properties in the village, and the interior features a staircase with twisted balusters and the hall has a hammer-beam style roof.