First national Huguenot Heritage Center to open in Rochester
The French Hospital has received a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund for the development of the first national Huguenot Heritage Centre in Rochester, to open in summer 2015. The French Hospital owns a highly regarded collection of paintings, prints, drawings, furniture, silverware, clocks, books, archival records, and other items illustrating the material culture of the Huguenots. These collections will be used to help to tell the Huguenot story in the new Centre - a story of persecution, flight to Britain and key contributions to the formation of modern Britain, and explore contemporary issues that resonate with the Huguenot experience.
The Centre is the first museum in Britain dedicated to the history of the Huguenots, a group of some 250,000 French Protestants who fled from religious persecution in France over a period of some 200 years, but most significantly at the end of the 17th century. Between 60,000 to 80,000 Huguenots settled in England, largely in the southeast: at Canterbury, Greenwich, Rye and Sandwich and predominantly in London in the City, Soho, Spitalfields, Wandsworth and Westminster. Lesser numbers settled in the west (Bristol, Southampton and Plymouth) and East Anglia (Ipswich and Norwich). This represents the biggest proportionate influx of immigrants in England's history.
Through displays and activities, visitors to the Centre will learn of the skills that the Huguenots brought with them, including silk weaving, silver smithing and furniture making, and understand their involvement and impact on banking, insurance, science, the arts, the churches and the army. They will also be able to explore their own historical Huguenot links; it has been claimed that at least one in six of British people might have Huguenot blood. The contemporary resonance of the Huguenots’ story will be illustrated by examples of recent refugees’ experiences in various areas of the display. A schools programme and bespoke community projects will also be created.
For more information about the museum or volunteering opportunities please contact the Huguenot Museum on 01634 789347.