Eastleigh Museum

Discover Eastleigh’s past, and meet Mr and Mrs Brown a local locomotive engine driver and his wife. There is always something new to see with a regularly changing programme of special exhibitions, workshops, talks and events, plus Family Friendly activities, cafe, and gifts.

We have a wide variety of information on the history of the Borough drawn from our collection of local material. You can use the Local Studies area for private research, for school projects or just for general interest. It's arranged into easy to use topic files, each containing a selection of photographs, press-cuttings, extracts from published articles and topographical illustrations.

We've got local reference books and archives, including an extensive collection of maps, plans, books, letters, printed ephemera, and everything from local trade directories, bill heads from local traders, Parish records and census information on microfiche, and photographs. The photographic collection includes postcards, albums and slides from the 1890s to the present day. Copies of photographs in the collection can be made on request.

School activities

Eastleigh Museum welcomes young visitors to study our permanent display of Eastleigh in the 1930s, which includes room sets and a range of local artefacts. You can also visit our regular changing exhibitions in the special exhibitions gallery. Our special exhibitions often have specific opportunities for schools.

Our Town Eastleigh KS1 & KS2

Two hour session giving young historians the chance to explore Eastleigh in the past through a range of historic sources, including maps, objects donated by residents of the town, census material and photographs. Activities include sorting images, identifying changes in the town, matching objects to people.

KS1 Home Explorers

This one hour session uses a range of historic household objects as well as our historic room sets and displays to help children explore homes in the past.

KS2 Home Front Eastleigh

This two hour session introduces pupils to activities to help them understand rationing, evacuation and safety on the home front with short transcripts of oral history accounts from people who were evacuated to Eastleigh from Gosport. The session includes a range of resources including sounds, smells and objects from the museum’s collection to handle.

Home Front Christmas KS2

A seasonal two hour variation of Children in WW2 - Home from Home, available in the lead up to the December break. Activities include dressing up, composing a Christmas telegram with a  budget, pooling ration cards for treats, handling objects from the collection and discussing whose present they might have been.