Three in a row for Chelmsford Museum

Chelmsford Museum has been voted best museum in the annual Essex Mums Awards for 2021. It’s the third time in a row that the city’s museum has won the category for the best museum in the county and if you haven’t paid Oaklands a visit for a while, here’s a reminder of why it’s such a popular family attraction.

New explorer zone created

This summer the museum created an explorer zone with free resources for families to explore its collections in different ways. Brightly coloured story bags containing trails, activities, a picture book and a nursery rhyme are available for under-5s and pre-schoolers can also borrow bee bags for adventures in Oaklands Park. Older children can pick up a History Hacker bag full of activities that take around an hour to complete.

Interactive features for families

One of the reasons that Chelmsford Museum is a hit with families across Essex is its interactive galleries, which have been carefully designed to bring the city’s history to life. There are cutting-edge features for children of all ages; from touch screen maps showing how Chelmsford has developed over the centuries, to an illusion created to reveal the secrets of the Anglo-Saxon Broomfield burial. There are hands-on activities too, from Iron Age weaving and Roman mosaic making, to dressing up in the costume gallery.

The Hive Café is a popular destination

The Hive Café, which was created when the redeveloped museum opened in 2019, is also loved by both parents and children. Visitors can eat inside and admire the Victorian surroundings of the Oaklands House or sit outside overlooking the rose gardens and parkland beyond.

If you’d like to pay the museum a visit to find out why it’s an Essex Mums Award winner for a third time, its website has all the information you’ll need to plan your day at: https://www.chelmsford.gov.uk/museums/visit/chelmsford-museum/