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As the largest such institution in West Sussex, Worthing Museum has been a major repository for archaeological finds from across the south coast for over 100 years – and when the Edwardian building was temporarily closed in March 2025 so that it could be connected to the Worthing Heat Network, its staff seized the opportunity to bring the galleries completely up to date. The renovations (supported by Arts Council England, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and other major donors alongside a local crowdfunding campaign) are now complete, and the recently reopened museum’s extensive archaeological collections have never looked better.
As well as attractive cosmetic changes – replacing brown carpet tiles with original Edwardian parquet flooring, and unifying the displays with a new, dark green paint scheme – one of the most impactful differences is the natural light that now floods the museum’s entrance and the area housing later prehistoric and Roman finds. In order to install the new heating pipes, a number of tall display cases standing in front of windows were removed, and the works also revealed a skylight. Elsewhere, harsh fluorescent bulbs have been replaced with more sympathetic lighting devised by the Worthing Theatres and Museum tech team, creating atmospheric effects and bringing out the details of individual artefacts.
The displays offer wide-ranging insights into the distinctive heritage of West Sussex: each case is full of intriguing artefacts, arranged by historical period – but they do not feel over-crowded, with every object given space to shine. The previous ‘Stone Age’ section has now been subdivided so that different cases focus on Palaeolithic and Mesolithic finds (highlights include the tusks of a baby mammoth and a Neanderthal hand-axe) and on the South Downs’ famous Neolithic flint mines. Visitors familiar with the previous layout will be glad to know that, opposite these latter displays of polished stone axes, worked chalk, and information about the celebrated local archaeologist John Pull (CA 379), the model of a Neolithic flint mine still survives – but now you can push a button to illuminate its subterranean galleries and trigger the sound of flint-knapping.
Boar cults and coin hoards
Many of the updated displays showcase recent discoveries (and rediscoveries) from the region: the Bronze Age section includes a collared urn that was found in the museum stores, now carefully restored, while Iron Age artefacts include a trio of small figurines depicting a dog and two boars – recent metal-detectorist finds from Clapham Wood in the South Downs National Park (see CA 430). In an effective touch, they are shown directly opposite a case of objects representing Roman religion, among them another couple of boar figurines. Might these animals collectively suggest that the Worthing area was home to a boar cult c.2,000 years ago?
Nearby, an arrangement of various Roman coin hoards includes the 4th century Lyminster Hoard, whose 12 siliquae, mainly of Julian II (r. 361 363) and in exceptional condition, were also recently acquired by the museum. Meanwhile, the famous Patching Hoard, found in 1997, is still in place in a wall-mounted case displaying its mix of coins and hacksilver. It was previously thought have been buried c.470 (the latest coin is of Libius Severus, r. 461-465), but new interpretive material highlights recent analysis of the hacksilver (by Dr Fraser Hunter at National Museums Scotland) suggesting that it could have been buried c.500 or even slightly later, potentially making it the latest Roman coin hoard found in Britain.
Burials and barnacles
A key element of the Anglo-Saxon displays focuses on the 5th- and 6th- century cemetery discovered within an Iron Age hillfort on Highdown Hill. Here there is much that will be familiar to previous visitors, including the reconstructed grave of a woman from this site, shown alongside a wealth of discoveries from the 19th-century excavations: brooches and colourful bead necklaces; cremation urns; spearheads, swords, and shield bosses; glass conical beakers and bowls; and metalwork that once bound wooden drinking buckets. The unique, possibly Egyptian, ‘Highdown Goblet’ (made of green glass, with a Greek inscription and images of a dog chasing two hares) has pride of place in its own display case. More recent finds from the Highdown Big Dig (which saw Worthing Museum join forces with the National Trust and Worthing Archaeological Society to carry out new investigations of the site), meanwhile, will form the focus of an exhibition at the museum in February 2027, accompanied by a conference, ‘The Story of Highdown Hill’. The museum will also host an exhibition this summer highlighting recent community excavations in the villages of Burpham and Wepham (look out for features on both projects in future issues of CA).
Opposite the Highdown displays, a glass case (evocatively illuminated with rippling blue light) showcases three finds from watery contexts. The early medieval longboat that will be familiar to returning visitors is now joined by a large, atmospherically barnacled Roman amphora, and a Roman wagon axle from Edburton, only the second such object to be found in the Western Empire, which was recently conserved by the Mary Rose Trust. Beyond this space, the museum’s medieval displays used to continue around to the right, but this area is now home to an expanded display of Worthing’s nationally significant costume collections. Instead, the archaeology gallery turns left, passing a case (to be updated every four months) celebrating local finders who have recorded their discoveries with the Portable Antiquities Scheme. The new medieval section is decorated with new and historic art (including a characteristically brooding reconstruction drawing of Bramber Castle by Alan Sorrell; see CA 285 for more on his work), and includes insights into ongoing PhD research examining what food residues on pottery from the Adur Valley can tell us about how local diets changed after the Norman Conquest. This part of the museum previously only went up to c.AD 1200, I was told during my visit – but now the scope of the displays has been expanded, including items representing local religious institutions, a 14th-century shoe lining, and a series of 17th-century tokens that were used by local businesses as small change.
The museum is still evolving, and the coming weeks and months will see further additions, including specially commissioned artworks and poetry inspired by some of the objects on display, as well as tactile 3D prints of selected artefacts which will be installed in front of their respective cases to enhance the experience of visitors with limited sight. Above all, the updates to the archaeology galleries are both thoughtful and thought-provoking: an absorbing celebration of West Sussex’s rich archaeological heritage, and an exciting demonstration of the important discoveries that are still being made in this region.
Further information: Worthing Museum is currently open 10am-8pm Thursdays, and 10am-5pm Fridays and Saturdays, with a plan to add Wednesdays from July, and Sundays in the near future. Entry is free; see http://www.wtm.uk/museum for more details.
All images: C Hilts
