Hastings Fishermen's Museum

Hastings Fishermen's Museum (Formerly St Nicholas' Church)
The building from the northwest
Location	Rock-a-Nore Road, Rock-a-Nore, Hastings, East Sussex TN34 3DW
Coordinates	50°51′22″N 0°35′43″E / 50.8561°N 0.5952°E / 50.8561; 0.5952Coordinates: 50°51′22″N 0°35′43″E / 50.8561°N 0.5952°E / 50.8561; 0.5952
Founded	1854
Built	1854
Built for	Church of England (as St Nicholas' Church)
Restored	1956
Restored by	Old Hastings Preservation Society
Architect	William J. Gant
Architectural style(s)	Gothic Revival
Visitors	140,000 (in 2008)
Listed Building – Grade II
Official name: Fishermen's Museum
Designated	14 September 1976
Reference no.	1043428
Location within East Sussex

Hastings Fishermen's Museum is a museum dedicated to the fishing industry and maritime history of Hastings, a seaside town in East Sussex, England. It is housed in a former church, officially known as St Nicholas' Church and locally as The Fishermen's Church, which served the town's fishing community for nearly 100 years from 1854. After wartime damage, occupation by the military and subsequent disuse, the building (an unconsecrated mission chapel) was leased from the local council by a preservation society, which modified it and established a museum in it. It opened in 1956 and is now one of the most popular tourist attractions in the town and borough of Hastings. The building, a simple Gothic Revival-style stone chapel, has been listed at Grade II by English Heritage for its architectural and historical importance.

From its founding in Saxon times, Hastings has been a fishing town; fishermen have worked on The Stade at Rock-a-Nore, near the Old Town, throughout the town's history, during times of prosperity (particularly the Middle Ages, when the industry was at its height), change (such as the 19th century, when the town was transformed into a holiday resort) and stagnation. Until the Victorian era, when the area's good climate and seaside location were exploited for tourism, Hastings' fortunes were dependent on the success or failure of the fishing port's activities and the associated boat-building industry.

By 1801, there were only two survivors of the original seven medieval churches in Hastings: All Saints Church and St Clement's Church. The rapid growth of the town thereafter encouraged church-building, and by the 1840s the rectors of the two churches were considering providing a church in the heart of the fishing area to encourage fishermen and their families to attend: many worshipped infrequently or not at all, preferring to work on Sundays. Rev. J.G. Foyster, the rector of St Clement's Church, arranged for a missionary, Tom Tanner, to base himself at Rock-a-Nore, and he commissioned architect William Gant to build a church. Gant, who had worked with architect Sir William Tite in London, had moved to Hastings in 1852 and was primarily a house and estate designer. His simple stone building cost £529 (£44,800 as of 2017) and was built in early 1854; the first service was on 26 March of that year.