Tag: Folkestone

Folkestone fishing museum reopens at new site near the Stade

The Folkestone Fishing Museum is open once more in its new location behind The Stade at the old Ovenden Engineering works in Radnor Street.

For many years it has been at the Old Booking Hall on the Harbour.

The museum offers a fascinating glimpse of the history of fishing in Folkestone. Equipment on display includes a wide range of items, but perhaps the museum’s best material is its collection of vintage photographs of local fishermen, the harbour and surrounding area.

Some of Ovenden’s old metalworking equipment is still on display in the museum building.

Entry is free, but the museum would love you to leave a donation to assist with running costs!

The Fishing and Heritage Museum, Folkestone

We dropped into the Fishing and Heritage Museum at Folkestone at the weekend – it’s crammed with interesting objects such as boat models – but the best things the little museum has is a fine set of old photographs, and helpful volunteers ready to answer questions.

I was intrigued that so many models of fishing vessels were of boats that had been built in Cornwall. The answer, it turns out, is that Folkestone’s boats used to be beach boats launched off the beach and designed to land and be hauled up at the end of a trip – like many of those elsewhere along the South Coast. However, once the harbour was built in the early 19th Century a different type of boat was needed. Such vessels were not built locally and so Cornish boats were brought in.

Here are some favourites… Some brave lifeboatmen and fishermen, a grand old boy with his melodeon and dog, some models and a priceless bit of local weather lore.

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Folkestone SALT sea and the environment festival is this weekend

Folkestone SALT

I’ve just learned this is going off this weekend – and that it will include our pals Sylvia Needham and Keith Kendrick performing and running a sea shanty workshop, a fascinating looking talk about historical maps of the Folkestone area, a lecture on our changing coast, and another on the life that the sea contains and what we can learn from it.

Click to check the programme, and get along if you can…