HISTORY

While the Coastal Communities Museum has only been in existence for a short time, its predecessor, the North Berwick Museum was formally opened on 8th July 1957 by Dr Richardson. He and two others, William Auld and Thomas Hutchison, devoted many hours to setting out exhibits which reflected the history, heritage and culture of the town.

The museum was housed, as it is now, on the first floor of the Grade C Listed 1876 North Berwick School building in School Road. It was run by the local Council.

By 2002 new legislation regarding access, fire and safety, forced its closure. A movement was established to push for the re-opening of a museum and pressure mounted on East Lothian Council to put this into effect.

In Spring of 2007 a local petition gathered more than 5,000 signatures. Given the population of the town then was around 6,000, this was a staggering number. Acknowledging the will of their constituents, East Lothian Council appointed consultants to conduct a feasibility study for a new museum, the findings of which resulted in them making funds available for the required capital improvements to the building.

In addition, the Council stipulated that the museum should broaden its coverage and in doing so take account of the surrounding villages within the North Berwick Coastal ward – Aberlady, Gullane, Dirleton and Whitekirk. This in turn led to joint consultations with a working party made up of representatives from: North Berwick Community Council, The Friends of North Berwick Museum, Dirleton Village Association and Aberlady Conservation Society.

Over 3 years the Working Party met regularly and overcame many a hurdle, not least securing additional funding from the Council to replace the roof of the building. Throughout this time they maintained a vision that the new museum should be “a vibrant place dedicated to describing the history of the area, entertaining and educating both residents and visitors of all ages and encouraging them to visit surrounding places of interest.”

Having supplied the additional capital funding to finalise the building, the Council were unable to make provision via their revenue budget to set-up and operate the Museum, therefore the Working Party recommended that it should be managed and run by a volunteer workforce. In August 2011, a three day "Pop-up" exhibition was arranged to enable the public to see the plans for the new museum and to find out what was in store for the future.

The outcome of these two actions was the establishment of a ‘Shadow Committee’ and a belief that the organisation to work in partnership with the Council should be a voluntary charitable trust. This in turn resulted in the formulation of the Coastal Communities Museum Trust in December 2012 with the Charity Number SCO43666.

A formal service agreement was drawn-up whereby East Lothian Council and would be largely responsible for the fabric of the building, while the Trust would provide the volunteers to manage and operate the museum. Currently the Trust has a Board consisting of 13 members with specific operational skills and/or providing representation for local communities.