The Mo: Sheringham Museum, Norfolk

I’ve lost count of the number of maritime museums that I’ve visited where the sound of crashing waves echoes through the galleries.

At the Mo, on the north Norfolk coast in Sheringham, the sound of crashing waves is the real thing – the North Sea is only a few metres away and the front of the museum is protected against winter storms.

This new museum is the culmination of a long journey for a group of local enthusiasts. Though there has been a volunteer-run museum in Sheringham since 1990, the first paid member of staff, museum manager Sarah Stannage, was appointed only this year, in advance of the opening of the museum on its new site.

A £799,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund allowed the volunteers to work with architects and designers – and the partnership has been very successful. The museum looks professional, but the volunteers’ enthusiasm and passion for their town still shines through.

The name “the Mo” comes from a lady called Morag, who lived on the site of the museum in the 19th century. Architect Feilden + Mawson has skilfully converted an unattractive 1990s amenity centre, maximising the space available on an awkwardly shaped plot.

Spectacular views

The museum is on three floors: the ground floor houses its collection of fishing boats and lifeboats; the upper floor tells the story of the town of Sheringham; and a viewing tower, which gives a spectacular 360-degree view of the town and the sea.

The ground and upper floors feature large windows through which visitors can see the sea – a great idea as the story of Sheringham is inextricably linked to the ocean. Fishing – for cod, plaice and skate, as well as crabs and lobsters – has been the basis of the local economy for hundreds of years.

This way of life lasted uninterrupted well into the early 20th century, when the arrival of the railway brought a new source of income: tourism. Until then, Sheringham was a close-knit community of fishing families. The hard life bred tough individuals: the locals are known as “Shannocks” – a dialect word meaning “restless, adventurous and unruly”.

The Mo’s strapline is “a place of people and boats”, and the boats are displayed in context, with lobster pots, railway posters from the early 20th century, a beach tent, a wealth of historic and contemporary photographs, and a re-creation of a local boat yard.

The north Norfolk coast is a dangerous place for shipping, prey to frequent strong northerly gales, and the Mo has three of the town’s historic lifeboats, dating from 1904 to 1990: the JC Madge, the Forester’s Centenary and the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows.

The lifeboats’ many rescues are recorded on panels. They include vessels from the Netherlands, Finland and Russia, as well as from Dundee and Newcastle, and planes forced to ditch in the sea during the second world war. Some of the volunteers served as lifeboatmen, and their stories add an immediacy to the interpretation.

Oddly shaped space

The upper floor is, in effect, a mezzanine, with walkways to allow visitors to look at the boats below. This has resulted in some oddly shaped spaces in which it would have been a challenge to create a coherently flowing story, so the decision to take an eclectic approach to telling the narrative of the town was probably the right one.

A street of shops is cunningly inserted in a corridor, while a ramp leading to a walkway houses a collection of local paintings. There is also a gallery focusing on the impact of tourism and war on Sheringham, local schools and the wool paintings of John Craske (Sheringham’s equivalent of Alfred Wallis).

Designer Nick Arber worked with the volunteers to create inexpensive but effective displays – for example, filling the second world war case with rubble. The graphics are excellent, and offer a choice of levels of information that should satisfy day-trippers and local residents.

The Mo is a work in progress. Still to come is a display on the Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm, which will start operating in 2011. The cranes that are helping to construct the project can be seen offshore.

Although there are already some hands-on areas for children, more interactives are planned. Inevitably, there are a few snags. The awkward shape of the site means that access to the upper floor is not immediately obvious, so some additional signage would be helpful.

The town story could also have been more structured. These minor glitches aside, the Mo is a vibrant and engaging place – and an inspiration for other volunteer-run museums.

Jane Weeks is a museum consultant

Cost £1.1m
Main funder Heritage Lottery Fund (£799,000)
Architect Feilden + Mawson
Exhibition design Nick Arber
Consultant Helen Mitchell
Marketing Shorthose Russell