About the Museum

 The museum was founded in 1971 in the old Kingsbridge Grammar School buildings. Mrs Evelyn Northcott persuaded English China Clays Ltd. to rescue the derelict building and found a museum to collect and record the social history of the area.

The Museum was named after William Cookworthy, who was born in Kingsbridge, and who developed the first true hard-paste porcelain ("china").

The Museum facilities now include:

• Displays of artefacts from the early history of Kingsbridge through to the present day;
  
  
• A gallery of agricultural machinery and tools;
  
  
• A collection of over 12,000 photographs dating from the 1870's through to the present day;
  
  
• Costumes from the 19th and 20th centuries;
  
  
• A viewing gallery giving a virtual tour of the Museum;
  
  
• A resource centre to support personal research. This has many local documents including microfilm copies of local newspapers from 1855 to the present.