Scarborough Maritime Heritage Centre

A great place to visit with a wealth of knowledge about Scarborough’s maritime history and some surprising tales

If you visit one place make it this one. It's a small centre but talk to the people and you'll learn a lot about the maritime history of Scarborough. It's free.

This small place is everything that Scarborough museums should be but arn't ,ie all about Scarboroughs rich maritime history and all things connected,the place is small but run by knowledgeable, friendly peopleWith a deep interest in the subject .We called earlier this year as my wife has family connections to the Sheader family and we were shown a newspaper front page reporting the 1954 lifeboat disaster in which the skipper Jack Sheader and two others of the crew lost their lives.Scarborough council take note ,this is the sort of place you should be supporting not corporate art galleries and geology museums packed with plastic dinosaurs .

Well worth a visit for local history. A team of great volunteers with loads of history to share

Great little place, really made good by enthusiastic explanations from the staff to my kids.

A really interesting little museum. Well worth a visit. The volunteers who run this treasure are so knowledgeable and friendly. A thoroughly enjoyable visit.

I think I was expecting a much larger place with exhibits and things and so was taken slightly aback to walk into a smallish shop.However it soon became clear that the true treasures of the centre are the guys, the volunteers.I used to live on an old firefighting boat in the early seventies and always wondered what had happened to her. Obviously thousands of vessels come through Scarborough and so the guys hadn't heard of her. I returned home slightly disappointed but was contacted a few days later with lots of information about the boat, including photos and I was very happy to hear that she had been rescued and renovated by a new loving owner and enjoyed a new lease of life in the States. They even supplied details of how to contact the new owner, which I did.I couldn't quite believe the trouble they went to, especially Les, contacting retired fishermen etc.It made me realise that boats are just objects, the real heritage is the people especially the older ones.If you visit the centre please donate a little to keep it going. Many thanks for reading.

Found this by accident, saw 1 tiny advert on a lamppost went up to have a look,The lady and man in the museum were so happy and friendly and very informative and great with our small kids kept them engaged and in fun facts and showed them around , real gem of a place, thankyou for such a friendly informative time great memories and great history

Visited in April 2023 and the place was really nice, if only there was more to see lol, well looked after and friendly staff

Fabulous volunteers, took the time to answer all my 10 year olds questions & brought the history of Scarborough to life for her.