The Sailors Reading Room was built in 1864 as a restful retreat for sailors, which would hopefully stop them going to sea on the Sabbath and getting drunk on any day of the week! It was opened by the widow of Captain Charles Rayley, whose Royal Navy career included fighting pirates off Borneo and privateers in the West Indies, where he acquired a wound across his cheek from a sword. After his swashbuckling career, he retired to Southwold and became a warden in the church. After his death, his surviving widow had the reading room built as a memorial to her husband.

The entrance to the reading rooms

Outside the Reading Rooms you will see the rudder of the Bittern and the City of Winchester. Inside you will find various models of schooners and yawls, fading photographs of lifeboat crews and fishermen and various other memorabilia.

The rudder of the Beach Yawl Bittern, built in 1890 and for many years, the fastest boat of her type on the coast

Inside the Sailors Reading Room

Part of a painting showing the Battle of Sole Bay

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