Hastings Net Shop Museum2026

The Hastings Net Shops are unique, so today you can visit the only Net Shops Museum in the world! It was built about 1835 and was used for storing all kinds of fishing gear until 1989, when the family that owned it gave up fishing. Since then, Steve Peak has been looking after it as it was, plus adding many old fishing items he has collected. Many of the exhibits go back well before the Second World War, with some coming from the sailing lugger EVG RX 152, which used this net shop until she was blown up by a mine in Rye Bay in 1943. The main purpose of net shops was to keep dry all nets and ropes made of natural materials that would rot if left wet. Today all fishing materials used are synthetic and therefore do not suffer if left in the open, and so they can be stored on the beach. The Museum has three floors, plus a cellar. It originally had only two floors, but in Mid-Edwardian times the building was lifted and another floor inserted underneath, along with the cellar. The top floor and roof were burnt off in June 1961 in a fire which destroyed the four net shops then standing to seaward. Admission free. Closed if raining.