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Behind The Scenes Blog

Almost everyday is different at Colchester + Ipswich Museums.  To help showcase the variety of skills we need, our staff are revealing what they get up to…

Latest Blogs

A colour photograph showing a display of Roman glass inside Colchester Castle. THere are two shelves that are lit from below. On them are different coloured and shaped vessels, including ribbed and smooth bowls, beakers and bottles with handles.

Reflections on Roman Glass

By Lib Fox, Projects and Development Lead * Click on the photos below to visit our Collections Online database and discover more. * ​ OK, full disclosure, I’m not an expert in Roman glass. In fact, I’m not an expert in Roman anything. My role at the museum involves...
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A Painting showing many people in armour standing outside a large white castle keep. An orange banner flies from the roof.

Under Siege!

By Ben Paites, Collections + Learning Curator 2023 marks the 375th anniversary of the Siege of Colchester, a terrible part of Colchester’s long and complex history. The siege began during the Second English Civil war in 1648, a period where England was torn in two....
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A colour photograph of a window seat style cushion, featuring an oval design in the centre of Colchester Castle. It is next to a plan for the cushion drawn on paper lined with a grid.

The Castle as a Cushion

By Liz Lee Reynolds, Colchester Museums Cushion Volunteer Since moving to Colchester, I have been enchanted by the history which seems to hide around every corner of this well-established settlement. Though sometimes easily overlooked, history feels deeply embedded in...
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Rage Recycling

By Sam Gray, Duty Officer for Colchester Museums At Colchester + Ipswich Museums we try and find ways to minimise waste and recycle where possible. We already have good systems in place at Colchester Castle to manage a lot of our everyday waste, but sometimes we need...
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A colour photograph showing a white hand holding up a dafodill made from cardboard.

Green Wins for Earth Day

By Lib Fox, Project Coordinator Our team are always looking for ways to be a bit greener so, with Earth Day coming up on Saturday 22nd April, we wanted to share some of the highlights from the last year.  Packing up Ipswich MuseumSince Ipswich Museum closed in...
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A colour photograph showing a piece of needlework. The background is a dull pink and there is an oval shaped picture of Colchester Castle, surrounded by light green grass and a cloudless blue sky

Hollytree Cushion Project update 2023

​By Megan Fowler, Visitor Information Assistant It has been a short *checks calendar* eight months since my last update on the Hollytrees Cushion Project – so I thought it was about time I shared the news of our progress!  Myself and a group of volunteers from Stitch...
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A black and white photograph of the wall of names featured in the Wicked Spirits exhibition at Colchester Castle. The image has been taken low down, looking upward. four columns of names are written in white text on a tall black wall.

A Wall of Names

By Karl Anthony Mercer, Curating for Change Trainee * Discover more by visiting our Wicked Spirits collection online.​ * A wall of names. You may have heard of a few, perhaps they were noteworthy enough to make it into chronicles, local legend or broader narratives....
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A colour photograph showing a person in a white lab coat, blur gloves and face mask looking at a mammoth tooth

The Hunt for the Oldest Mammoth DNA in Europe

Will 200,000-year-old mammoth teeth from Suffolk contain DNA?By Dr. Simon Jackson, Collections and Learning Curator, Ipswich Museums This is what we hope to find out from specimens held at Ipswich Museum. The research is being led by Centre for Palaeogenetics...
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A colour photograph showing a rusty anchor being lowered onto the deck of a large ship. Two men in waterproof, hi vis clothing and hard hats are lowering the anchor onto an area of plastic. The photograph has been taken at dusk or dawn, as the sky is quite dark.

Rare Roman anchor from North Sea windfarm site comes to Ipswich Museum

By Anna Mercer, Senior Collections and Learning Curator For one day only, on Tuesday 27th September, visitors to Ipswich Museum will be able to see a rare Roman anchor, which was discovered during the construction of the East Anglia One Windfarm site off the coast of...
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A colour photograph showing two examples of Whale Barnacles against a white background. They are brown in colour. The texture is rough in places and smooth in others, with some deep grooves

A Whale Tale from Red Crag Barnacles

Humpback Whales in the Ancient Seas of Suffolk?By Dr. Simon Jackson, Collections and Learning Curator, Ipswich Museums Recently we welcomed Professor Andy Gale from the University of Portsmouth who is studying the diversity of barnacles preserved in the Suffolk rocks...
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