Blake Museum

The building is believed to be the birthplace of Robert Blake, General at Sea. It was built in the late 15th or early 16th century, and has been designated by English Heritage as a grade II* listed building. The three-storey two-bay structure is built of limestone with some hamstone and a mixture of English bond and Flemish bond brickwork. Some of the ceilings are original including one of six panels divided by chamfered beams and a roundel in the middle of each panel. One of the fireplaces has a Tudor oak lintel. In the mid C19 the building was occupied by George Parker (1796–1888) Customs Officer, historian and author.

The museum was founded in 1926 by Bridgwater Borough Council, and its collecting area covered from East and West Huntspill in the North to Thurloxton in the South and from Ashcott and Burrowbridge in the East to beyond Nether Stowey in the West. This was the area of the Bridgwater Rural District Council. In 1974, the assets of the borough council were absorbed by Sedgemoor District Council, which ran the museum until 2009, when it could no longer afford to do so: the museum was then returned to the ownership of the town council. The collection includes materials relating to Blake's life. Although it is commonly used, Robert Blake's name was never prefixed by "Admiral", which was not used in…

Because of the Coronavirus crisis, the Blake Museum closed to the public on 20 March, with the rest of the town council's public buildings. On 31 March the museum launched a Facebook Group called Bridgwater History. The aim of this group was to help fill the void while the museum was closed. By the end of October, it had over 3,400 members and is growing. It is a Private Group, devoted entirely to Bridgwater's history, and nothing else.