The Queenborough Guildhall Museum tells the fascinating story of this historic town. From a small Saxon settlement to wealthy Borough with a Royal Castle built by Edward III. Queenborough is full of Victorian industrial heritage and Queenborough was home to hundreds of minesweeping vessels during the Second World War.
The museum:
On the site of a Palace of Varieties, built in 1868 as a hotel and music hall, the Centre tells the story of Blue Town from the 17th to the 21st century by focusing on its maritime, military and social history. In World War One the original building was bombed during the Gotha air raid of 1917, the same year that the music hall closed.
In 2009 a group of volunteers began the restoration of the music hall and the creation of a Heritage Centre: it became a registered charity in 2010.
The Isle Of Sheppey can claim to be the birth place of British Aviation. Beginning in 1909 at Shellbeach (Muswell Manor) with the first aircraft factory, moving to Eastchurch in 1910 where it became the Flying Field of the Royal Aero Club with pioneers such as the Short Brothers, Charles Rolls (as in Rolls Royce), Cecil Grace, Frank McClean and visited by the famous Wright Brothers, Orville and Wilbur from the USA.
Following on from the pioneers came the Royal Navy with the Navy Wing of the RFC (Royal Flying Corps) and then in 1914 the establishment of the Admiralty's flying school for the Navy the RNAS (Royal Naval Air Service). In 1918 the RFC and RNAS were merged to form the RAF.
The Eastchurch Aviation Museum aims to reflect this history and the site's further service through the inter-wars years right to the end of WW2.
Rose St Cottage is a fine Grade II listed Kentish clap-boarded building with original features. It is one of the last 3 remaining in Sheerness constructed by and for Sheerness Dockyard workers in the early 18th Century. One-time home to the Kick’s shipwright family, it has strong associations with the history of the Dockyard and is furnished with objects relating to this and other Sheppey histories. Our volunteer team runs it as a Heritage Museum and Arts Centre encouraging active and inclusive community participation in learning about and enjoyment of local history and culture.