Ottery Heritage Society Museum

The Ottery St Mary Heritage Society Museum is housed in a side building at the Salston Manor Hotel, on the outskirts of Ottery. It is comprised of two rooms that are absolutely jam packed with exhibits and information.

There is an extremely knowledgeable steward in each room and they are more than happy to answer any questions that you have about the exhibition.

The new exhibition for 2006 covers the development of the Ottery Flood Defence Scheme.

Room 1 contains mainly display boards covering the early history of Ottery St Mary (variously referred to as Otrie or Autrie depending on the age of the source). It covers the period from the archaeological evidence of a Roman occupation and the development of an Anglo-Saxon settlement.

It continues through to the building of the Ecclesiastical College as an internationally recognised seat of learning and a discussion of the history of St Mary’s Church

Moving on to the Dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII and the Civil War.

There is also a considerable amount of information about the most famous son of Ottery Samuel Taylor Coleridge the poet and philosopher.

Room 2 continues with pictures and artefacts covering Ottery’s social history in slightly more recent times. Learn about the rise and fall of Ottery’s great houses, the fires and floods, the effect of the railway, industrial development and change. The difference it made when electricity was introduced to the town and the coming of the cinema.

Old Ottery in pictures and a salute to the passing of the grand Victorian age.

There is a small admission charge of just £2.00 but the fund of information you can find in the museum is well worth it.

How to find the Ottery St Mary Heritage Society Museum

The exhibition is open now until late September 2006

Opening times: 10.00am till 4.00pm Monday till Friday

New for 2006
Now open on Sundays times as above

Other times by arrangement.

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