VENUE: Diss & District Bowls Club, Lower Denmark Street, Diss IP22 4BE. This is located behind the Cock Inn on Fair Green. Plenty of free parking available.
Meeting start time: 2.00 pm

Friday 5th April – Keith Rackham
50 Years a Stonemason

Keith tells how he took a local Diss stonemasons company, serving local families to designing and building many memorials at the National Memorial Arboretum, near Lichfield, Memorials on the Somme and Northern Cyprus. The talk is well illustrated, but interspersed with interesting accounts of many he met along the way, members of the Royal Family and clients who commissioned the work.
Keith is proud that the traditional craftsmen he employed are still serving local families from their Scole workshop.

Friday 3rd May - A short AGM* will be held before Pip Wright’s talk –
Britain's Greatest Showman

George Wombwell, menagerie-owner extraordinaire’s displays of exotic and unfamiliar animals brought from abroad, would have been for most nineteenth-century Britons their first encounter with animals of this kind.
*Free entry for people attending the AGM only.

Friday 7th June – Basil Abbott
Roydon Riots

In 1993, the Centenary of the Roydon Riots, villagers acted out the events of those heady days. Insurrections over enclosure were matched by events at the Hall. Lord of the Manor, John Tudor Frere, a believer in droit du seigneur, had divorced his wife and married an 18 year girl. As she was younger than her two stepdaughters, sparks flew. Basil Abbott, who wrote and directed the show, presents a retrospective version of it, with the help of some drama friends.

Friday 5th July – John Johnson-Allen
The Man who created Armistice Day

The most distinguished admiral you will most likely never have heard of, Rosslyn Wemyss, life and career was both fascinating and brilliant. He left a permanent mark on the life of this country, when, on 11th November 1918, as the Allied Naval Representative at the armistice negotiations in the railway carriage at Compiegne in France, he was responsible, with Marshal Foch, for the creation of Armistice Day, by the decision, made at 5.30 AM, to cease hostilities on land, in the air and at sea.

Friday 2nd August  –
Subject to be confirmed – please check our website for updates.

Friday  6th September– Tim Holt-Wilson
Lost Beasts of Norfolk & Suffolk

Elephants at Ipswich, rhinos at Cromer and hippopotami in the Waveney valley. Tim will take us on a safari exploring the lost, native wildlife of East Anglia over the past 3 million years, with special reference to fossil sites in the Diss area.

Friday 4th October – Tony Diamond
The Ipswich Murders

In 2008 Tony served on the Jury at Ipswich Crown Court for the Trial of the “Suffolk Strangler” accused of five murders. After the unanimous Guilty verdict, Judge Gross pronounced a Whole Life Sentence. He will present an inside account of the case along with an overview of Jury Service in Crown Court in the UK.
 All questions are welcome.

Friday 1st November – Jonathan Dutton
The 1940’s House – An Art Thrown Away
This era is recent enough for memories to be stirred- Brands once common remembered. What we threw away can tell us a lot about the past, discarded wrappers, adverts, a birthday card or a gas bill.

Friday 6th December - David & Avril
The CHRISTMAS QUIZ
David & Avril are back with their light hearted fun quiz.
Plus the popular Booby Prize & Mince Pies for All!e.

A Stroll around Diss
March-October, £5 per person (accompanied children under 12 free)
Stroll time: approx. 1.5 hours, start and finish at the Museum
Introducing you to our lovely market town – not just a guided tour! Learn about some of the old buildings, the town’s history, some of its famous people and a lot of interesting things about Diss.
Remember… we put the ROLL into the STROLL for those who rely upon wheels to get around!
View the event poster



Permanent Exhibitions

Always on display are the Manning family dolls' house and information about local personalities like Tudor poet-laureate and Diss rector, John Skelton, and Victorian photographer, Cleer Alger.

Diss Museum      Diss Museum


Temporary Exhibitions

Have you a collection you’d like to show?

Send us an email – disscollections@gmail.com and tell us all about it.

2006

Secrets of the Butcher's Attic

 

Church Street

 

Pubs of Diss

 

Betjeman centenary

 

Samplers

 

 

2007

Gaze’s & Frenze

 

DissBorn - a few iconic objects from local people about their life Thelveton Estate, school, gamekeeping History of Town Guide

 

 

2008

Diss Grammar School centenary

 

End of WW1 90th anniversary

 

World War 3

 

Historical Items With a Hint of Mystery

 

 

2009

Thomas Paine

 

The Shambles history

 

Fair Green

 

Banking Scandals

 

Diss Secondary Modern School

 

 

2010

Edwardian Childhood

 

Crippen & Ethel Le Neve

 

Meccano

 

 

2011

Mannings

 

Flints & fossils

 

 

2012

Sport

 

Church School 150th anniversary

 

Friendly Invasion 70th anniversary

 

On the Square: Freemasons

 

Royal commemorations

 

 

2013

Corn Hall

 

Diss Militia, including medal

 

King John & Matilda 800th anniversary

 

Flints & fossils

 

History of life before electricity

 

Brushes

 

 

2014

Airship Days

 

WW1

 

UN International Year of Crystallography

 

Eighteenth Century New Hall porcelain

 

Burston Strike centenary

 

 

2015

Diss Mere

 

Redgrave Estate - Admiral Wilson and WOP Garnham

 

The Heritage Triangle Traders

 

Diss Hospital

 

Lost Sweet Shops of Diss

 

Hats Off - hats and hatpins

 

 

2016

The Roydon Field Mystery

 

Well shod!

 

Wop Garnham & Admiral Wilson

 

WW1 update

 

Hidden Gems

 

A Royal Event

 

The Printed Word

 

100 Years of the Cubs

 

The Heritage Triangle

 

Tristram Cary Tribute

 

 

2017

Norfolk and Seretse Khama

 

The Great War

 

Heritage Triangle

 

Cupiss

 

Diss Rotary Club

 

1937 Coronation

 

The Aldrich Bros Ltd Brush & Mat Factory

 

John Frere’s hand axe discoveries

 

World War 2 

 

Diss Cemetery Worthies

 

The Handwritten Letter

Past Exhibitions

2024 Programme of meetings

11 Market Hill
Diss
Norfolk
IP22 3JZ
01379 673613
dissmuseum@lineone.net

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