Somerset Museums

Watchet Market House Museum houses a fine collection of local artefacts, fossils and marine paintings. The town’s rich maritime history features in many of the exhibits.
With visitor numbers averaging 30,000 per season, this small Museum is a ‘not to miss’ attraction.

Located next to the harbour, where the Esplanade meets Market Street, Watchet Market House Museum occupies the ground floor of the town’s former Market House. We celebrated our 40th birthday in 2019.

A special exhibition celebrates West Somerset’s Victorian industrial heritage when the West Somerset Mineral Railway carried iron ore from the Brendon Hills to Watchet for shipment to the steel making furnaces of South Wales.

The Jurassic coast of West Somerset is highlighted with a splendid external window display describing it’s formation, with impressive fossils inside including an Ichthyosaur and a huge ammonite.

A ‘Watchet Chronology’, is on display with a pictorial timeline by local artists telling the story of the town’s rich and varied past. These colourful displays will be of great interest to both young and old, as will the many photographs which will bring back many memories.

Watchet’s rich maritime history is an important part of the museum and features in many of the exhibits on show with the ‘Yankee Jack’ statue and the ‘Ancient Mariner’ taking pride of place on the Esplanade.