Museum Exhibits
The Heritage Centre covers a wide range of themes from prehistory to the present day.
Current Exhibits
From prehistoric to modern day Bude, you can immerse yourself in the rich heritage this small town gives to its visitors. We have over fifteen exhibits at the centre, all free entry and open seven days a week.
Find out about the Bude formation, a distinctive rock formation unique to this area. During the 1930’s, a fossil fish was discovered within the Bude formation and named Cornuboniscus Budensis. See the fossil on display, which has not been found anywhere else in the world. Further displays include shipbuilding and shipwrecks, featuring Bude’s most famous wreck, the Bencoolen. Maritime links continue, with a display on Bude’s little known link to probably the most famous wreck of all, the Titanic. Also featured downstairs, is an exhibit about the railway, documenting its history and subsequent demise in Bude through a series of interesting artefacts.
Exhibits continue with the Bude Canal. Discover the story behind this unique waterway, with its working sea-lock and its historical importance to Bude. A detailed model shows how goods were transported uphill via the inclined plane, a feat of Victorian engineering. D-Day provides a link to Bude’s more modern past, with US Rangers using the cliffs of Bude to practice before heading to the beaches of Normandy. An exhibit shares some of the memories of the Rangers in Bude by local residents.
Upstairs, there are rooms dedicated to Sir Goldsworthy Gurney, featuring both his inventions and fascinating artefacts from his personal life. Also featured are a number of paintings depicting local scenes and information on the Battle of Stratton, fought during the English Civil war. At the end of the corridor. Our newly opened exhibit about Bude’s unsung heroes tells the tales of lifesaving in the community and at sea. The Storm Tower room lends knowledge to how the fondly referred to ‘Pepperpot’ or ‘Compass Point’ has had a vital role to play in Bude’s heritage and the story behind the historical move from the edge of the cliff edge.
All our heritage exhibits have free entry and open daily from 10am. To find out more about them, head over to view our monthly guide. All our rooms in which the heritage exhibits are situated are dog-friendly spaces.
The Gurney Rooms
‘The Gurney Exhibit Rooms’ are a ‘re-imagining Sir Goldsworthy Gurney’ from the original exhibition. Sir Goldsworthy Gurney designed and built The Castle in 1830. He was a Victorian scientist, inventor and engineer, whose achievements have been largely forgotten by society. The exhibit has three themed areas, explaining Gurney’s key experiments with creating a steam driven carriage, his experiments with light, and the steam jet. Three new interactives engage with the viewer to bring his ideas to life. An element of fun runs throughout the whole exhibit. The Gurney Rooms are located on the first floor just off the Cowie Corridor. They are open all year round from 10am until closing with free entry.
Weathering the Storm
‘Weathering the Storm’, tells the story of how saving lives at sea, has defined the people and community of Bude for centuries. The exhibition features original artefacts, with some on loan from the Bude branch of the RNLI and Bude’s Surf Lifesaving Club. This new exhibit can be found in The Maskell Room which is off the Cowie Corridor on the first floor of The Castle. You can access this through Café Limelight or through the heritage centre on the ground floor.
If you’d like to hear more about the stories of Bude’s ‘Unsung Heroes’, why not pop in for a visit, which is open from 10am every day with free entry into our exhibits and our galleries.
The Storm Tower Room
To commemorate the history of the Storm Tower and the historic journey it has experienced, a dedicated exhibit has been installed at The Castle Heritage Centre. ‘The Storm Tower’ exhibit features information on the Acland family, the history of the Storm Tower, the past and recent moves to preserve the tower, the community’s evolvement and a look at climate change which is the reason why the much loved landmark was moved and saved.
Footsteps Through Time
‘Footsteps Through Time’ explores over 10,000 years of human activity in the Hillhead area, north of Stratton Road. The objects on display were all discovered locally by archaeologists and range from the Mesolithic period through to post-medieval times, showing that this landscape has been continuously inhabited since the end of the last Ice Age.
Highlights include worked flint tools from the later Mesolithic period, Neolithic pottery associated with cremated human remains dated to around 3700–3640 BC, and finds from the Bronze and Iron Ages that reflect changing technologies and ways of life. Medieval pottery reveals Stratton’s past as a thriving market town, while post-medieval objects such as clay pipe fragments, glazed pottery and glass provide a glimpse into more recent daily life.
Together, these discoveries tell the long and remarkable story of people living, working and adapting in this area across thousands of years.
The Castle Detective Activity Sheet
Take part in the Castle Detective activity for £2! Explore the museum, uncover exciting facts, follow the Gurney and art trails, find objects, and tackle word-finder challenges. Pick up your sheet from Café Limelight on the first floor.