4.
Ed. This is the first of a series on the
various museums in Essex.
NATURAL HISTORY AT THE COLCHESTER AND ESSEX
MUSEUM
by J. J. HEATH, KEEPER OF NATURAL HISTORY
The Natural History department of the
Colchester and Essex Museum opened in the
former All Saints Church in the High Street
in 1958. Of the natural history collections
present in the Castle Museum until about
1920, only the geological specimens survived.
The new museum, therefore, opened with
little in the way of specimens, books or
equipment, but within a short while, due to
the goodwill of local naturalists, good
collections were acquired of Lepidoptera and
Coleoptera and the basis of a useful Herbarium.
From the beginning it was decided to
concentrate on the interation between man and
wildlife and on the natural history and
geology of north-east Essex. The display
collections are our "public face" and they
commence with the early Neolithic alterations
to the fauna and continue through to the
present day with the effects of oil out at
sea and chemicals on the land.
There are exhibits on the salt-marsh
and mud-flats, important in Essex, and we
are actively collecting material at the
moment to increase our small geological
display. We also run small temporary exhi-
bitions that at present depict owls, garden
birds and the food of some wintering waders.
These are changed every three or four months.