Cater Museum

The museum is a registered charity and is located at 74 High Street, Billericay.^[2] It lies within a Grade II listed, 18th-century, red-brick-fronted building, which was previously a shop and the home of a saddle and harness maker.^[3][4]

In 2002, a Victorian kitchen garden was opened at the rear of the museum^[5] where a number of Elizabethan herbs were planted.^[6] In 2008, the museum received £41,000 of National Lottery funding^[7] 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.^[8]

The museum's collections previously belonged to the Cater family, the museum's first curator Harry Richman, Anthony Nicholls and A. Basil Brooks.^[4]

The museum stores numerous local artefacts over three floors, including information on local families and buildings.^[9] Amongst the artefacts are: reports of the Zeppelin that was downed in the area during World War I; the remains of a two-headed lamb born in the area;^[10] and the door of the house once owned by Christopher Martin, who was a passenger aboard the Mayflower.^[11]