Closed – The Norfolk Nelson Museum

If Nelson were American, and had single-handedly (forgive the pun) saved the US from invasion, how do you think he might be remembered there?

My suspicion is that the town he came from would be renamed Nelsonville. The state in which he was born would be called Nelson. And children up and down the land, from Florida Key to Alaskan mining town, would study at various Nelson Highs.

I don’t wish to descend into jingoism, but I do find it slightly sad that Nelson’s achievements aren’t more revered here in Britain. Most people don’t know about the all-consuming pressure he was under to defend his country in 1805. The fate of Britain hinged on Nelson that autumn: his tactics, his man-management, his bravery. Defeat at Trafalgar would have likely meant an invasion of English coastal towns by the French and Spanish. Had that come to pass, we can completely rewrite British – and world – history.

It is particularly odd how little ceremony that Norfolk, Nelson’s home county, pays him. There is no specific Nelson museum here. There was one, once. An independently run collection of artefacts in Great Yarmouth. It closed down in 2019, citing low visitor numbers and lack of council funding. I live in Norfolk and genuinely had no idea the museum even existed until today. How is this so?

The lesser-seen Nelson museum.

I know I sound like a grumpy old git, but it amazes me that with all the pots of money that get pushed around for arts and education projects, Norfolk is unable – or perhaps unwilling – to sustain (and promote) a small Nelson museum of some sort.

Grumble over. This week is the anniversary of the Battle of the Nile, so I’ll be writing about that. It was the first British victory to seriously bloody Napoleon’s nose, and it sealed Nelson’s legend as a British hero evermore.

Or so they thought at the time…