What's on in the area

St Barbe Museum

Daily; not Sun

Cost: £3; concessions £2

Hours: Mon-Sat 10am-4pm

St Barbe Museum in Lymington tells the special story of the coastal strip between the New Forest and The Solent, with its fascinating past and present. The area has seen a thriving salt industry as well as smugglers landing their illegal cargos and has a long tradition of innovative boat building. The museum's aim is to capture the unique flavour of life in the district and to bring first-class art exhibitions into the town.

The museum represents the heritage and culture of the parishes of Boldre, Hordle, Lymington and Pennington, Milford-on-Sea, New Milton and Sway. The Ted Marsh Gallery provides a high environmental standard and the security necessary for the St Barbe Museum to borrow works of art from well-known collections.

The John Coates Gallery is a multi-purpose space designed to house locally-produced exhibitions on history, art and natural history. Don't miss the Timeline Gallery, which is an introduction to the main displays. Enter the gallery in the present and, following a Time Line, you end up back in the Stone Age.

Objects, images and information provide glimpses into local life at particular times in history. The collection now runs to 20,000 individual items, covering a wide range of topics from 40 million year-old fossils found in Barton Beds to Stone Age hand axes, flint tools and medieval pottery.

St Barbe Museum