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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 23h

Ever wondered what Colchester Castle is like after dark? Knightzzz at the Museum gives families the chance to spend the night inside the Castle AND meet Juliasaurus. Explore hidden areas, meet our rangers and enjoy hands-on dinosaur activities before settling down for a dinosaur sleepover.

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Exploring Colchester by bike this #CycleSeptember? 🚲 Make Hollytrees Museum one of your stops. Nestled in Castle Park, it's a great destination for a sustainable day out and part of the Good Journey scheme, helping you discover easy car-free ways to visit.

Large winter-bare tree with a thick, twisting trunk leaning in front of a red-brick Georgian-style building with tall white windows; a purple sticker at the bottom right promotes sustainable visits, reading "good journey — visit us car-free."

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Points to anyone who knows where to find this in the museum!

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Or perhaps the perfect day in on a grey, cold day? 😘

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Kelly Smith 🍁 @kellymjsmith.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

This is a fun thread. I didn't even know there *was* an emoji for amphora!

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

What lies beneath Colchester Castle? Our guided tour takes you into spaces that are not normally accessible during a general visit, including the vaults and remains of the Roman temple that once stood on the site.

Exposed Roman temple foundations in a dim underground passage, with a plaque noting a 5-foot-thick base built c. 50 A.D.; overlaid text encourages visitors to take the tour underneath to see the original foundations.

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

From The Conjuring films to the cases that inspired them. Chris McKinnell, grandson of renowned paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, shares firsthand accounts of investigations that later inspired some of horror cinema's most famous stories.

Promotional poster for Moon, Magick & Mystery featuring a portrait of speaker Chris McKinnell in the foreground, with black-and-white images of two people behind. Text reads: “Chris McKinnell: The Truth Behind the Conjuring Universe”.

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

After dark, the Castle has a few stories to tell. Our Dark Castle Tours take place after closing on 16, 22 and 28 October. Inspired by the Wicked Spirits exhibition, these guided evening tours explore the Castle's shadowy corners, old myths and some of the stranger tales from its long history.

Promotional poster for "Dark Castle Tours" at Colchester Castle showing the illuminated stone façade at night with tour dates 16, 22, 28 October.

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The answer for today's #ThrowbackThursday was 156-158 High Street, the corner now occupied by Chewton Rose! Harold Poulter’s 1940 photo shows this corner when it was still a busy shopfront. Today the frontage is much plainer, but the building itself is older than it might first appear.

Corner High Street building housing Chewton Rose estate agency, with two rusted metal animal sculptures on the pavement and a road sign restricting through vehicles 7am–7pm except buses, taxis and authorised access.

Historic street corner showing a brick "Royal Liver Friendly Society" building above a fishmonger’s storefront advertising oysters, salmon and game, with a few pedestrians outside.

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

We're almost into the last month of the Moon in the Castle - pop by before the end of October if you don't want to miss it!

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🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️ @benpaites.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Forget Romans and a dinosaur, visit @colmuseums.bsky.social for our pocket potato! (I’m surprised the lobster people haven’t made an appearance yet).

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Today’s #ThrowbackThursday is a proper blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scene from 1940, captured by Harold Poulter. There is a corner shop and a shopfront promising fish, game and oysters. It looks very different now, but a few clues still survive if you know where to look. Do you recognise this spot?

Corner brick building with curved "Royal Liver Friendly Society" signage above an open-front fish and oysters shop; a man enters while shopkeepers stand by seafood displays and a chalkboard advertising salmon.

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Glass and amber beads from a 6th-century Saxon burial mound in Feering. A small, bright trace of someone who lived locally around 1,500 years ago and chose to wear colour and shine. Visit our museums to explore more Essex stories told through real objects.

Necklace arranged in a near-circle on a white background, made from blue glass tube beads and small yellow, dark, and reddish beads, with a large irregular amber pendant bead at the bottom.

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Mark Hughes @markhughes1878.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Juliasaurus - a 6.2 metre long therapod, this specimen is nearly 75% real fossil bone. Lived during the Jurassic Period, around 150 million years ago. On display currently at the Hollytrees Museum in Colchester.

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

They *wish* they had a magical pocket potato.

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David Meyer @dajmeyer.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

My favorite part of the @ColMuseums at #Colchester Castle: a chainmail hauberk. It is very heavy!

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Andrew Spratt @dirleton.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Colchester Castle Keep, Essex (England) reconstruction mock-up. #ColchesterCastle #NormanKeep #EnglishCastles #HistoryRebuilt

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Des Lewis @dflewis.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Inside Colchester Castle last Saturday… @colchesteressex.bsky.social @colcivicsociety.bsky.social

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Ancient History 101 Podcast @ancienthistory101.org · 23/09/2026

Featuring Ben Paites, Senior Curator at @colmuseums.bsky.social, Kate Sumnall, Curator of Archaeology at @londonmuseum.bsky.social and Lexi Diggins, archaeologist and guest curator at @stalbansmuseums.bsky.social... Ancient History 101 presents: BOUDICA Part 1: Prelude to Destruction

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

This #WorldCarFreeDay, why not leave the car at home and discover the natural world another way? 🚌🚶‍♀️🚆 Colchester's Natural History Museum is easy to reach by public transport, walking or cycling, making it the perfect stop for a car-free day out in the city centre.

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Old moon superstition says seeing the new moon through glass is unlucky. Luckily, Museum of the Moon is indoors, enormous, and very much not subtle. Book your visit: colchester.cimuseums.org.uk/events/moon-...

Historic earthenware pots displayed behind glass in a museum exhibit, set against a large illuminated blue moon installation filling the background.

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David Meyer @dajmeyer.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

We started our very English day by visiting Flatford, where John Constable painted his most famous landscape, _The Hay Wain_. There is a lot of duckweed because the summer has been so hot. The model of the hay wain is at #Colchester Castle @colmuseums.bsky.social.

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David Meyer @dajmeyer.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Here’s the Sheepen Cauldron, on display at #Colchester Castle @colmuseums.bsky.social the oldest known bronze cauldron. It reminded me, of course, of Lloyd Alexander, _The Black Cauldron_.

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David Meyer @dajmeyer.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Visited #Colchester Castle @colmuseums.bsky.social. Tombstone is of Longinus, born in what is now Bulgaria, duplicarius in the Roman army.

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

This papier-mâché head looks slightly haunted. In reality, it was a milliner's display stand from the early 1800s.

Front view of a painted mannequin head with black painted hair, simple facial features and strong surface cracking and paint loss, mounted on a green-painted neck and round base.

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Werewolves in folklore. Supernatural creatures in legal history. Join Ben Paites and Naomi Ryan at Moon, Magick & Mystery and discover where legend meets reality: colchester.cimuseums.org.uk/mmm/

Promotional poster for Moon, Magick & Mystery featuring a head-and-shoulders portrait of speaker Naomi Ryan. Text reads: “Naomi Ryan: The Supernatural and the Law”.

Promotional poster for Moon, Magick & Mystery featuring a portrait of speaker Ben Paites holding a decorated ceramic vessel with carved faces and symbols. Text reads: “Ben Paites: A History of Werewolves”.

Promotional poster for Moon, Magick & Mystery at Colchester Castle. The illustration shows a large full moon rising behind the castle, a werewolf in the foreground, and a flying saucer in the sky. Text reads: “Moon, Magick & Mystery, 9–10 October 2026”.

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Getting to Colchester Castle doesn't have to mean getting in the car. 🚶‍♀️🚲🚌 As part of the Good Journey scheme, we're encouraging visitors to explore sustainable ways to travel.

Medieval stone church apse beside a park path with people walking under an overcast sky; a purple ticket-shaped sticker in the corner reads "good journey" and "visit us car-free."

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

This morning’s #ThrowbackThursday spot was what is now Red Lion Books at 125 High Street. The photo was taken in 1940 by Harold Poulter, Deputy Curator, as part of a wider collection of photographs recording Colchester in the 1940s.

Historic street scene showing a Claridge & Co. racket-stringing shop with a round racket sign and awning beside C. Robinson Chemist, with pedestrians on the sidewalk and a cyclist in the foreground.

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

This week’s #ThrowbackThursday has plenty to spot. There are shop awnings stretching across the pavement and some eye-catching signs above the ground floor. This was taken in 1940, and a few of the upper-storey details are still there if you look closely. Do you recognise this corner of Colchester?

Vintage black-and-white street scene showing a chemist with a "C. Robinson Chemist" awning beside Claridge & Co racket-stringing shop, with pedestrians on the sidewalk and a man riding a bicycle across the foreground.

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

🪲 Wild About Essex returns this October with a focus on insects. Join us at the Natural History Museum to help photograph, label and sort collection specimens while learning more about Essex wildlife. Free, booking required, ages 18+. Book tickets: colchester.cimuseums.org.uk/events/hands...

Promotional image for "Wild About Essex: Hands on with Insects" (2, 7, 9 October) showing a person wearing purple gloves using a red magnifying glass to examine pinned insect specimens displayed in small boxes on a wooden table.

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Mini Museum Explorers is back at the Natural History Museum on 29 September. Join us for stories, crafts and hands-on activities exploring habitats from around the world and closer to home. Designed for children aged 2½ to 5 and their carers. £3 per child: colchester.cimuseums.org.uk/events/mmesep/

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

A Viking axehead found in the River Colne raises more questions than it answers. The hole in the blade comes from centuries underwater, not combat. Some archaeologists think it may have been deliberately placed in the river as an offering rather than accidentally lost.

Viking axehead seen from the right side, showing curved blade and large corroded hole near the lower edge, set against a white background.

Corroded iron Viking axehead with wide blade and socketed end for a handle, photographed from the left side against a white background.

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

There is more to Colchester Castle than you can see on an ordinary visit. Join one of our guided tours to explore its hidden spaces and hear the stories behind thousands of years of history, from the Roman temple beneath the Castle to the remarkable building standing here today.

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Past life regression, future life exploration and energy self-healing with Chia-Yen Oh. Three opportunities to explore intuition, wellbeing and personal growth during Moon, Magick & Mystery. 🌙 colchester.cimuseums.org.uk/mmm/

Promotional poster for Moon, Magick & Mystery featuring a portrait of speaker Chia-Yen Oh in front of a floral backdrop. Text reads: “Chia-Yen Oh: Past Life Regression”.

Promotional poster for Moon, Magick & Mystery featuring a head-and-shoulders portrait of speaker Chia-Yen Oh against a dark background. Text reads: “Chia-Yen Oh: Energy Self Healing”.

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Fossil Friday thought it had the monopoly on ancient wonder. Then the Moon turned up. See Juliasaurus at Hollytrees Museum and Museum of the Moon at Colchester Castle. Book: colchester.cimuseums.org.uk/visit-us/

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Today's #ThrowbackThursday is St Nicholas Street! Our photo, taken by C. G. Cosser ~ 1925, shows stalls in their new position in after the Town Council ordered them away from the High Street because they were obstructing traffic. It's a reminder that moving the market around is nothing new.

Market day on a cobbled street with wood-and-canvas market stalls and vendors at right, shoppers milling, a man in a suit and bowler hat crossing with a cane in the foreground, and a three-story building with awnings and a large tree behind the stalls.

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

This week’s #ThrowbackThursday shows a city centre scene from around 1925, with a line of market stalls in their “new” spot and shoppers weaving past on foot. The move had been ordered because the old arrangement was causing traffic problems elsewhere. Do you know where this is?

Early 20th-century street market with vendors' carts and awnings along a cobbled road, shoppers milling about, a well-dressed man crossing with an umbrella, and a large three-story corner commercial building in the background.

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

What do you see in the Moon? A face? A rabbit? Craters? Stories? Shadows? Museum of the Moon is your chance to look properly. Colchester Castle, until 31 October: colchester.cimuseums.org.uk/events/moon-...

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

⏳ The countdown is on! There are only a few weeks left until The Nile-High Club arrives at Colchester Castle. Expect suspicious motives, hidden secrets, ancient Egyptian intrigue and a crime begging to be solved.

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

How accurately do our devices depict an ancient amphora? Our curator Ben Paites has inspected every version, and the results range from “solid Greek amphora” to “What in the Minecraft?!” Swipe for expert analysis, questionable handles and one surprisingly respectable 9/10. 🏺🧵

Blue graphic showing nine amphora emojis from different platforms arranged in a grid around the title: "Roman ceramic curator rates every amphora emoji". The emojis are labelled Facebook, JoyPixels, Skype, Twitter/X, Serenity OS, Google, Samsung, Microsoft and WhatsApp.

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Across cultures, the Moon has been a goddess, a god, a calendar, a guide and a story. Museum of the Moon brings that shared fascination into Colchester Castle. Book: colchester.cimuseums.org.uk/events/moon-...

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Explore moon magic and full moon traditions with Layla Green and Katie Hardy at Moon, Magick & Mystery. Book online and build your perfect day: colchester.cimuseums.org.uk/mmm/

Vintage-style event poster titled MOON, MAGICK & MYSTERY showing a large engraved moon, a howling werewolf, a medieval stone fortress with a bridge and a flying saucer, with event dates 9-10 October 2026—promoting a supernatural-themed weekend.

Promotional poster for Moon, Magick & Mystery featuring a portrait of speaker Katie Hardy wearing a wide-brimmed black hat and dark cloak. Text reads: “Katie Hardy: Full Moon Magic”.

Promotional poster for Moon, Magick & Mystery featuring speaker Layla Green holding a painted drum decorated with a blue wolf illustration. Text reads: “Layla Green: Moon Magic & Charms”.

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Sound bath. Reiki. In a castle. 🌙 On 17 September, experience a deeply relaxing evening beneath the spectacular Museum of the Moon installation at Colchester Castle. Book your place: colchester.cimuseums.org.uk/events/reiki...

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Did you get our #ThrowbackThursday? It was the junction of Queen Street and High Street, looking past All Saints Church! The church is a very old part of the street scene. The Natural History Museum has been housed in it since 1958, after it became redundant in 1956 as the city population declined.

Early 20th-century ceremonial procession down a town street, uniformed soldiers and civic officials marching in formation past crowds of women, children and onlookers gathered by brick buildings and lampposts.

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

A lovely busy city scene for this week’s #ThrowbackThursday. This photograph was taken ~ 1920-35, with a ceremonial procession moving through the street. Look closely and there is plenty going on, from shopfronts, railings and one very familiar bend in the road. Do you recognise it?

A formal civic procession of uniformed soldiers, police and officials marching down a town street past onlookers—women, children and men—lined along sidewalks and behind railings in an early 20th-century black-and-white scene.

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Making plans for Invasion Colchester on Saturday? Pop into Colchester Castle and enjoy half-price admission all day. Explore 2,000 years of history, interactive displays and the spectacular Museum of the Moon as part of your day out. Reduced-price tickets are available in person on the day.

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

🥂 Not your average night at the museum... Enjoy a welcome drink, delicious nibbles and an evening packed with suspicious characters, shocking revelations and plenty of foul play.

Fizz, Nibbles + Foul Play — a murder mystery event at Colchester Castle on 19 Sept; close-up champagne glasses fill the foreground with a blurred party scene behind.

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Join us at the Natural History Museum this September to explore fossil specimens from the museum collection and learn how museums care for and document their objects. Free to attend, but booking is required. Suitable for ages 18+. 🔗 colchester.cimuseums.org.uk/events/hands...

Two museum staff wearing purple gloves examine fossil specimens on a table during a hands-on Natural History Museum event titled "Wild About Essex: Hands on with Fossils," promoted for 16, 18 and 30 September.

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

If you need a “technically educational” day out, we have: 🌕 Moon science 🦖 Dinosaur science 🧚 Folklore 🕰️ History 🌳 A walk through Castle Park Suspiciously fun, but it still counts. Book: colchester.cimuseums.org.uk/visit-us/

Polished meteorite slice revealing iridescent Widmanstätten cross-hatched crystal patterns, mounted on a small stand and displayed in a museum exhibit.

Large mounted shark jaw suspended from a museum ceiling, mouth wide open revealing multiple rows of sharp triangular teeth.

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