Blake Museum
The Blake Museum at
5 Blake Street, Bridgwater |
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 Location within Somerset and England
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| Location | Bridgwater, Somerset |
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| Coordinates | 51°07′38″N 3°00′05″W / 51.1271°N 3.0014°W |
The Blake Museum is in Bridgwater, Somerset, England and since April 2009 has been run by Bridgwater Town Council with help from The Friends of Blake Museum.
The museum was founded in 1926 by Bridgwater Borough Council, and its collecting area covered from East and West Huntspill in the North to Thurloxton in the South and from Ashcott and Burrowbridge in the East to beyond Nether Stowey in the West. In 1974, the assets of the Borough Council were absorbed by Sedgemoor District Council, which ran the museum until 2009, when it could no longer afford to do so. The Museum was returned to the ownership of the Town Council. Since then, the Museum volunteers have completely re-furbished the building and garden, have undertaken a re-display in new cases of the artefacts, and have begun an update of the museum's catalogue.
The Museum's 90th birthday in 2016 was celebrated by a special exhibition.
The building is believed to be the birthplace of Robert Blake, General at Sea (1598–1657). It was built in the late 15th or early 16th century, and has been designated by English Heritage as a grade II* listed building. The three-storey two-bay structure is built of limestone with some hamstone and a mixture of English-bond and Flemish bond brickwork. Some of the ceilings are original including one of six panels divided by chamfered beams and a roundel in the middle of each panel. One of the fireplaces has a Tudor oak lintel.
Although it is commonly used, Robert Blake's name was never prefixed by "Admiral", which was not used in the Parliamentarian navy; his actual rank of General at Sea combined the role of an Admiral and Commissioner of the Navy.
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