Audrey Woodhouse, Social History Volunteer at Ipswich Museums It’s the seventeenth century and superstition is rife. The Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins is causing an enormous stir in East Anglia, creating an intense paranoia amongst the people. Aside from...

Guest blog by Jill Holmen, Collections Manager at Epping Forest Museum Epping Forest District Museum has built up quite a collection of medieval rings over the last few years, mostly thanks to the Treasure Act (1996). I was especially pleased when Colchester Museums...

Nicola Hearn, Adorn Volunteer Hi, my name is Nicola and over the summer I frequently volunteered for the exhibition Adorn, Jewellery; the Human Story. In today’s blog post I will be talking about my favourite case in the exhibition, Materials and Making, and my...

Cym Storey, Conservator, Colchester Museums While in one of the museum store rooms recently I came across a set of four painted cast iron stove panels (COLEM:1926.5196) in need of conservation. The panels were very dirty and corroded, and losses to the surface paint...

Liz Tregenza, Collections and Learning Curator (Colchester) My name is Liz and I am the new Collections and Learning Curator at Colchester + Ipswich Museums. I was very excited to have a look around the current major exhibition Adorn: Jewellery the Human Story at...

Claire, Your Stories participant At the beginning of May I saw a casting call on Facebook from my local museum, Colchester Castle. They were opening a new exhibit called Adorn: Jewellery,The Human Story and they were asking local people to submit pictures of and the...

Tom Harffey, Adorn Volunteer The Adorn exhibition is an eye-opening, incredible collection of ancient jewellery, mostly found in the local area. We as humans have always been intelligent and skillful, and it truly is both a showcase and a timeline of the talent and...

IPSMG:R.1996.41; The Boss Hall Brooch On loan from Ipswich Borough Council   Cymbeline Storey, Conservation Officer (Colchester) We’re going to take a closer look at one of the many stunning objects currently on display in Colchester Castle in the exhibition Adorn:...

Eleanor Root, Colchester and Learning Curaor (Ipswich) When the amazing kids from Suffolk Family Carers arrived at Ipswich Museum for their Hallowe’en party the Museum was pitch black. We hadn’t forgotten that we’d invited nearly 30 young people and some of the braver...

Guest blog by Carolyn Wingfield, Curator at Saffron Walden Museum This ring was found by a metal-detectorist near Thaxted, Essex in 2013. After it was reported under the Treasure Act (1996), it was purchased for Saffron Walden Museum’s archaeology collections by...