Tuesday 6 June 2017

Time and Tide Museum Great Yarmouth



26th July 2017 UPDATE:
We were fortunate enough to attend a Bloggers Brunch at Time and Tide where we had a tour of the Titanic: Honour and Glory exhibit. The artefacts are part of a private collection from Scotland and are on loan until 24th September, (still plenty of time to catch it before it goes!)
Although many of the items are from the Titanic's sister ship The RMS Olympic, they are identical to those that would have been used on the Titanic itself. 


It was interesting to read the local connections, for instance if you were a 2nd Class passenger you would have enjoyed dining on Yarmouth Bloaters for breakfast!
Or read about Ellen Bird, a maid for a 1st Class passenger, she survived the shipwreck after her employer, Ida Strauss refused to leave her husband (millionaire Macys owner) and gifted Ellen her fur coat to keep her warm on the lifeboat.


We also found out information about the Wednesday Family Fun Days, running throughout the Summer holidays. The theme of these varies throughout the weeks, today's theme was Seaside Special, with hourly traditional Punch and Judy shows in the Courtyard, free face painting and some fun sand art (this was a BIG hit with the girls!)


The girls spent quite a while making their sand art creations, Mollie worked on a mermaid...


...whilst Emily created a whale about to eat a sea turtle!





The girls and I took an evening trip to visit the Time and Tide Museum, Great Yarmouth. As part of the UK bi-annual event Museums at Night, the Time and Tide were offering visitors free entry from 6pm-10pm. 

What is Time and Tide?
Housed in one of the historic Victorian Herring works, Time and Tide showcases Great Yarmouth's vibrant history - from it's bustling herring fishing to wartime tales from locals, a replica Victorian Row to the progression of the seaside industry of which Great Yarmouth is well known for.
They also have a Titanic Exhibit - Honour and Glory, which is running from 1st April - 24th September.
This was something that the girls were particularly keen to see and was the main focus of our visit.


Where is it?
Time and Tide is situated along Blackfriars Road in Great Yarmouth. There is a public car park opposite the entrance or you can reach it by foot from the local town centre.

Normal opening times and prices.

Opening Dates

1 March - 31 October 2017
open daily 10am - 4.30pm

1 November 2017 - 31 March 2018
Monday - Friday 10am - 4pm Saturday and Sunday 12 - 4pm 

NB closed 24-26 December and 1 January

Ticket prices

Adult £5.70
Concession £5.40
Child (4-18) £4.55
Family (1 adult + all children) £14.55
Family (2 adults + all children) £19.40
Twilight Ticket (1 hour before closing) £2


The Museum
As you enter the gates, you will find yourself in an expanding courtyard, nostalgically decorated with bunting and Union Jacks. Children can enjoy a play on the wooden boat, view an old fishing boat and play courtyard games whilst adults enjoy a break at the Silver Darlings Cafe. 


Once we were inside the girls enjoyed wandering along the replica Row. For those who don't know, Great Yarmouth is home to a network of 145 very narrow streets which are unique to the town. These consisted of housing and shops. These were originally inhabited by both the rich and poor. 


In the Time and Tide replica you can see how the dwellings would have been utilised as housing, a pawn broker and an old Fisherman's home.

We then made our way through to where the old smoke rooms can be found. These are part of the originally building and are eerily atmospheric.


Great Yarmouth is infamous for its rich herring fishing, dating back in history to the Doomsday book! Sadly it is no longer the case but you can learn quite a bit about the herring fleets at Time and Tide.
Stand in one of the smoke rooms and you can detect the ancient smoked herring smells lingering.


Along this level we also found free face painting (as part of Museums at Night), music and tried our hand at Morse Code!



We then made our way upstairs to the second level to view the Titanic exhibit.


Here we spent time reading the names of the passengers and crew aboard the Titanic, dressing up as passengers, having a look at a replica of the sunken ship, the girls were particularly interested in this and hearing about how the ship broke into two.




 From here we moved through to enjoy a few more of the permanent displays. I really liked the Seaside Gallery. The old British Transport posters, the seaside regelia and swimwear of yesteryear!


In other areas of the museum you will find local history of World War 2, with audios of local residence and their war time experiences.
This area was a real eye opener for the girls, Emily couldn't get over the old Morrison Shelter and how these were used over beds. 



The girls also had fun seeing the objects from the 1950/60's. The old dial telephone brought back memories and the girls decided that dials were far too much hassle!


All in all we had a good visit, we will definitely look into when the next Museums at Night is running (usually around October). Its lovely that the Time and Tide celebrate and showcase the towns history.
For more information about Time and Tide, then visit the Norfolk Museums Services or find them on Facebook.






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