5 January 2026
By Tim Koch
Henley’s River and Rowing Museum (RRM) closed to the public on 21 September 2025 and has moved into a “mothballed” state to reduce the level of financial losses while the trustees and the few remaining employees work to find new homes for the thousands of artefacts in its collection.
The following notice was recently put on the RRM website.
We are now seeking homes for the River Thames collection and the Rowing collection. Please note that the collection relating to the town of Henley-on-Thames is not currently being disposed of.
At this stage we are seeking expressions of interest from museums or organisations committed to public access for the River and Rowing collections. While we would prefer to keep the collections together as much as possible, we will also accept expressions of interest for individual items.
The RRM website continues:
You can browse our collections online.
To discuss this further, please contact the Curatorial Team at curatorial@rrm.co.uk.
To make a formal expression of interest, please fill out this form.
Read the Collections Ethical Framework (PDF)
Read the Collections Transfer FAQs (PDF)
Read the Collections Website FAQs (PDF)
As the Auriol Kensington RC archivist, I have looked at all the RRM’s artefacts relating to the Auriol and Kensington rowing clubs online and have asked that they may be transferred to AKRC using this form. I urge other clubs to do the same.
Hear The Boat Sing 
Thames have had a superb renovation job done on this fragile wreath; the real oak leaves are 90 years old & still there albeit with a layer of green paint!