The Cater Museum is a small local museum in

Billericay Billericay ( ) is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Basildon in Essex, England. It lies within the London Basin, east of the City of London. The town was founded in the 13th century by the Stratford Langthorne Abbey, Abbot of West Ham, ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

county,

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The museum was established by Alice May Cater, in honour of her late husband William Alexander Cater, a local

antiquarian An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artefacts, archaeological and historic si ...

. It was opened to the public on 7 May 1960.

History

The museum is a registered charity and is located at 74 High Street,

. It lies within a

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

, 18th-century, red-brick-fronted building, which was previously a shop and the home of a saddle and harness maker. In 2002, a Victorian kitchen garden was opened at the rear of the museum where a number of Elizabethan herbs were planted. In 2008, the museum received £41,000 of National Lottery funding to carry out renovation of the rear of the building to restore it to its original 18th-century character. While this renovation was being carried out, a number of artefacts were discovered in the garden, some dating from around the 1860s. Items included Victorian pipes, ginger beer jars and medicine bottles; many of these were added to the museum's collection.

Collections

The museum's collections previously belonged to the Cater family, the museum's first curator Harry Richman, Anthony Nicholls and A. Basil Brooks. The museum stores numerous local artefacts over three floors, including information on local families and buildings. Amongst the artefacts are: reports of the

Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp. 155� ...

that was downed in the area during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

; the remains of a two-headed lamb born in the area; and the door of the house once owned by Christopher Martin, who was a passenger aboard the ''

Mayflower ''Mayflower'' was an English sailing ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After 10 weeks at sea, ''Mayflower'', with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, reac ...

''.

References

{{reflist Billericay Local museums in Essex Grade II* listed buildings in Essex