March 12 2013


Seaford Museum offers free entry on Saturday 16th March 2013 - 11.00am until 3.00pm

Seaford Museum returns to the sea, the beach and the storms that have lashed the town over the centuries for the theme of its 2013 Special Exhibition, "Sea Breezes and Sea Beans". An ever present feature and influence over Seaford, the sea can be both a good friend and a deadly enemy. The Museum will be showing images and artefacts which highlight many of the aspects of that special relationship.

Beachcombing is a popular past-time, however far too often the debris washed up on our beaches is the carelessly abandoned rubbish of our modern age, but occasionally, amongst the trash, there are treasures to be found. Sea Beans, or exotic seeds can drift across the Atlantic Ocean from America or the Caribbean on the gulf stream, sometimes taking a year or more to reach our shores. These can include the Sea Heart, known locally where it grows as the Monkey Ladder!

But some of these exotics came from a more local source: a number of Ivory Nuts will be on display which were part of the cargo of the SS Peruvian which was wrecked in Seaford Bay in 1899 and whose figurehead is one of the regular exhibits in Seaford Museum. Most excitingly, these ivory nuts can still be found on our local beaches 114 years later.

As the wreck of the Peruvian proves, the sea can be dangerous and our seashore regularly receives the remnants of ships, large and small, which have been lost over the years as well as mysterious sections of aluminium, quite possibly from friendly or enemy aircraft lost during the Battle of Britain; flint fossils and other fascinating finds, many of which will be on display.

The decision to protect the Seaford Sea Wall with tonnes of imported shingle in 1986/87 remains controversial for many people, but without taking sides in the arguments, the exhibition includes photographs of the damage to the sea wall in the 40 years before the 1986/87 sea defences were built. The extent of the destruction may be a surprise to those local residents who have only known the town over the past 25 years.

In a first for the Seaford Museum, this 2013 Special Exhibition, "Sea Breezes and Sea Beans" is being supported by the British Ecological Society, which is marking its Centenary - 1913 to 2013 - this year. There will be a number of other joint Seaford Museum/British Ecological Society events during 2013 - look out for details: www.seafordmuseum.co.uk

To mark the opening of the "Sea Breezes and Sea Beans" special exhibition, the Museum is offering free admission to the Museum to the public on Saturday 16th March from 11.00am until 3.00pm.


Further information about this and other Seaford Museum activities may be found on the Museum's website: www.seafordmuseum.co.uk