Farnham is marking 100 years since the town’s first attempt to establish a museum with a call for new supporters to help safeguard its future.

Behind today’s scaffolding at Willmer House on West Street lies a story of repeated efforts, false starts and long waits before Farnham finally secured a permanent museum.

The first voluntary museum was set up in 1926 at the Farnham Institute, cared for by a local schoolmaster. It failed to win universal backing. Some members argued “a billiard room would be more useful”, and the museum soon closed.

Earlier attempts date back even further. In 1858, the Surrey Archaeological Society debated opening a museum at a meeting at Farnham Castle, chaired by the Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Revd Charles Sumner. About 500 people attended. A “Temporary Museum” was created “at the boys’ school room in Farnham” and attracted “upwards of 2,000 people” over two days.

Despite the enthusiasm, “no permanent establishment followed”.

Another push came in 1908, when the Farnham Field Club staged an exhibition at the Institute in South Street. Opening the event, the Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Revd Herbert Edward Ryle, said he “hoped that these treasures would never be lost or dispersed, but that the people of Farnham and neighbourhood would regard them as bound up with the past intellectual life of its society and community”.

Farnham Urban District Council concluded a museum could help make the town a tourist destination, but progress again stalled.

By around 1939, a museum had been established at The Chestnuts in East Street, then a council property. Plans for expansion were derailed by the Second World War. The building closed, collections were put into storage and, with no proper inventory, items were lost or dispersed. Some finds, including material from Waverley Abbey, went to Guildford Museum, while others ended up in the British Museum.

The long campaign finally bore fruit in 1958, following the death of Canon J.M.C. Crum, a former rector of Farnham and hymn composer who had lived at Willmer House. His family offered the property for sale to the town at a reduced price so that “the long cherished wish for a Farnham Museum could be realised”. Purchased by Surrey County Council, the museum opened in 1961.

Two years later, the Farnham and District Museum Society was formed to support the museum, stimulate interest, organise activities and publish research. Since 1965 it has produced a quarterly journal and has published about 20 books.

The museum is currently closed while it undergoes a £2.3 million refurbishment, with plans to transform it into a craft museum reflecting Farnham’s status as a World Craft Town.

As the museum reflects on a century since Farnham’s first museum venture, the society is now looking ahead. It is seeking new members and plans to revive regular meetings “to discuss and investigate matters of local historical interest”.

Roy Waight, of the society, said: “Anyone interested in joining a like-minded group of individuals in pursuit of topics of local historical interest will be given a welcome. Bring along ideas – and we need new members.”

A first open meeting will be held at the Garden Gallery in the garden of Willmer House between 11am and 12.30pm on Saturday, January 31.

Anyone wishing to join the society can apply via its website at www.farnhammuseumsociety.org.uk