The Collection was begun by three people working quite independently of one another during the years immediately following World War II, to include documents, artefacts and photographs relating to the history of the Parish of Langton Matravers from geological times to the present.

The first Exhibition of this local history material was during the 1951 Festival of Britain. In January 1972 the Langton Matravers Local History and Preservation Society was founded, the aims of which are to research, collect, store, exhibit and publish all aspects of the history of the parish. In August of the same year a very popular weekend Exhibition displayed what had already been collected. In the months following a great many more items were presented.

By January 1974 the collection numbered almost six thousand items, so a Parish Museum was opened in a small room of 90 square feet ground area. Here ten aspects of local history were shown in rotation: Farming and Dairying; Quarrying and Stonemasonry; Schools and Education; Churches, Chapels and the mediaeval Priory; Workshops (Blacksmith, Carpenter, Cordwainer and Baker); Shops and Cottage Industries; Events of Importance; Wartime Commemoratives; Past Parishioners and their Possessions; and Vernacular and other local Architecture. When the Quarrying and Stonemasonry exhibition was dismantled there was a popular outcry as this was so representative of the heritage of South Purbeck generally, so the little Coach House Museum was opened in 1982 in a disused coach-house and stable.

In 1985 use of the Parish Museum room, which was held on an annual lease, was lost, but the Coach House Museum has continued. It joined the Museums Association, the Association of Independent Museums, the Area Museum Council for the South-West, the Dorset Museums Association, the British Association for Local History, and the Council for British Archaeology Group 12. In 1992 it obtained Provisional Registration from the Museums and Galleries Commission, and is currently completing the requirements of Stage 2 of Registration. As part of Stage 1 the Society adapted and equipped a Museum Store Room, though it was found to be not really large enough to house adequately the entire social history collection. Documentation of the entire collection of over twelve thousand items has been completed according to the standards set by the Museum Documentation Association.

Meanwhile, so that the collection and its merit were not forgotten, the Society mounted large temporary exhibitions from time to time in the Village Hall during three-day weekends; Schools and Education in 1988; Farming and Dairying in 'Food & Farming Year', 1990; Langton in World War II to mark the Anniversary of D Day in 1995; and Victorian/Edwardian Scenes (Schoolroom, Parlour, Shop and Laundry) in 1996.

The Society, which has been a Registered Charity since 1975, numbers 150 and is the largest of ten organizations in the parish. Through Winter and Spring months it provides illustrated lectures on topics of local and national history. During Summer months it arranges guided historical walks in the locality. It has produced twenty booklets, those published since 1995 having photographic illustrations. It produces a Bulletin three times each year which lists all new acquisitions to the museum, and an annual Journal with illustrated historical articles. In such ways we have striven to fulfil the Society's aims and to provide a heritage service to the local community and to visitors.

The largest section of the collection comprises 3442 photographic prints from 1842 onwards, many of which feature former inhabitants or buildings which no longer exist. All are stored in Secol sleeves. There are also 380 transparencies which include aerial views of the parish from 1939 to 1985. There are 830 film negatives which include projects at the village school and the styles of Langton's 372 tombstones the inscriptions on which have all been transcribed and published. There are 2710 documents (deeds, letters, bills of sale, diaries, accounts, programmes, and transcripts of National Census Returns, Parish Registers and the Cartulary of Wilkswood Priory). There are 104 genealogical charts of local families, some going back to the 16th. Century. There is a library of 1477 books, some dating from the 17th. Century. There are 564 coins (Roman Imperial, Mediaeval and from 1540 onwards) and 42 Trade Tokens. Besides many gramophone records there are 54 tapes of oral history and the local dialect, including 235 dialect 'sayings'.

Bronze Age chisel

The collection includes many geological specimens (rocks and fossils) and 330 local archaeological finds,  including a rare Bronze Age tanged chisel, a Bronze Age side-loop spearhead, flint arrow-heads and hand-axes, shale armlet-cores and many pottery sherds from Durotrigian and Romano-British to the 19th. Century. There are 188 furniture items, some from the Victorian Schoolroom and some from an Edwardian village shop. The costume includes crinolines, two of which are differing styles of Victorian wedding-dress. There is a macramé bonnet of 1841, a collection of embroidered Victorian baby-linen, and some good examples of women and children's clothing of the 1920s and 1930s. Among the fabrics is an 1876 altar-frontal with French lace, a hand-embroidered linen bedspread dated 1894 and beaded patchwork table-cloths of circa 1851.

Victorian Dress		Macramé bonnet		Garland cup recovered from the "Halsewell"

The Bygones number 1265 and include, some 18th. Century pewter, a rare George Phippard long-case clock of c.1770, gold and silver watches, rings, lockets and chains, Victorian and Edwardian tea and dinner services, four instruments from the former Village Band and String Orchestra, many medals and certificates won by the village Folk Dancing and Morris Dancing teams and complete sets of tools from the local blacksmith, carpenter and cordwainer. Plans include detailed surveys of 16 cottages and the two manor houses. Memoirs of World War II include details of the 'break-through' in Radar by scientists stationed at two of our six former boarding-schools.