See eight award-winning models of the very first steam engines from Dartmouth man Thomas Newcomen to Richard Trevithick – the engines that changed the world. See also the impact of steam on Dartmouth: the first steam-powered Floating Bridge, the Paddle Steamers, the coming of the railway, and shipbuilding.

Exhibitions Now Open!

Our latest Exhibition bringing to life the adventurous and disturbing story of the Mayflower Pilgrim Separatists and their suffering before settling in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620…

The King’s Room has a fine collection of ship models, paintings and drawings relating to the town’s maritime history. There is a time sequence of ship models round the walls of the room…

This room is a time capsule evoking the atmosphere of a typical late Victorian study representing the life and works of a most extraordinary man, William Cumming Henley (1860-1919). Henley, an ironmonger, embodied the Victorian thirst for knowledge and self-improvement.

This room is themed on the social and physical development of the town. It is named after the leading family of the town who provided the Mayor and Member of Parliament during much of the 19th Century…

Dartmouth’s importance during the 1939-45 war mostly centres on D-Day preparations and covert cross-channel activities. The Dartmouth at War alcove in the Holdsworth Room, made up to represent a war-time shelter with a unique film featuring rare footage taken during the preparations…

The Jesse Room is part of the Museum but remote from it, being the main room of the westernmost house of the Butterwalk. This is where the archives are held and worked upon. It is called the Jesse Room because of its extraordinary unique ceiling of plaster imagery in high relief, displaying the Tree of Jesse…

Explore the wonderous Archives in the Dartmouth Museum Collection.