Visiting the Museum!

Our standard opening hours are:

Wednesday-Saturday 10-5pm

Sundays & Bank Holidays 2-5pm

Closed Mondays (apart from bank holidays)

Tuesdays are reserved for pre-booked group visits by schools and other parties in term time. 

www.saffronwaldenmuseum.org

Object of the Month

The Museum’s ‘Object of the Month’ provides an opportunity to explore interesting and unusual objects from our stores. 

To celebrate harvest time our ‘Object of the Month’ for September is the nest of a Harvest Mouse, Micromys minutus, made of woven grass. It was found in a clump of Knotgrass at Sweetings Meadow nature reserve, near Thaxted in 1999. The Harvest Mouse is Britain’s smallest rodent. Weighing only 6 to 8 grams it is light enough to climb grass stems and reeds, using its paws and long prehensile tail to grip the stalks.

This is our only mouse able to build nests by weaving living grass leaves together. In summer and autumn, the mice live above ground in camouflaged nests. Breeding nests are spherical and up to 10cm diameter in size to accommodate litters of two to eight young. Single mice build smaller, less robust nests up to 5cm in size. A Harvest Mouse survey in Essex found nests in the grass of roadside verges that bordered arable fields and in reedbeds, ditches, field edges and hedgerows. The nests may be sited in the base of a tussock of grass or up to a metre above ground in dense vegetation.

Visit the Museum in September to see the Harvest Mouse nest on display, together with a photograph of another mouse with its nest in a barn taken by a local wildlife photographer. You can also find some tiny Harvest Mice on the Natural History gallery. To see the blog on our website visit www.saffronwaldenmuseum.org

Harvest mouse nest SAFWM : 2001.180

Saffron Walden Museum ©

Lost Language of Nature

Runs until 30 October

Lost Language of Nature brings stories of animals and nature from around the world to Saffron Walden Museum. 

Part of a year-long project to begin to recognise and discuss the global origins of the museum’s taxidermy items and to respect, share and record their international stories through community work and exhibitions.

The focus of our community work is to collect both local and international stories and cultural information about our taxidermy specimens from the public. 

Object in Focus: Horniman Museum

Objects in Focus is a loans programme run by the Horniman Museum in London, funded by Arts Council England, which aims to improve access to their collections and strengthen their partnerships with other museums and cultural organisations, by offering a range of objects for loan free of charge.

In July the Museum is loaning some tattoo design examples from the Horniman Museum under this Objects in Focus scheme.  These tattoo models from Sarawak, Borneo date to the 19^th century.  We will use them, along with other items from our collections, to share with visitors more about the history of tattooing around the world.

The display also features a tattoo implement from Fiji, made from a bone plate with a bamboo handle, which has been decorated with plaited coconut fibre.  It was collected in Viti Levu, Fiji, Oceania Polynesia in 1876.

(Pictured left): Kayan tattoo model, Horniman Museum ©

Thank you!

Lost Language of Nature Family Fun Day held on Wed 17 August

Thanks to everyone who joined us for this one-off day of activities for the whole family as we launched a brand new art commission for Uttlesford to record, celebrate and share your lost or hidden stories about the plants and animals we see every day.

Here's just a few pictures from the day!

Project Update:

Greater in Spirit,

Larger in Outlook

Epping Forest District Museum in Waltham Abbey and Saffron Walden Museum have received an Arts Council National Lottery project grant of £100,000 to work in partnership on their world culture collections.

The aim of the project is to ensure the museums and their collections reflect their diverse communities by working directly with cultural groups to research different objects and tell their stories.

The project’s title, ‘Greater in Spirit, Larger in Outlook’ is inspired by Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. Museum staff will work with relevant community groups including the Ethiopian History Society, to explore, explain and exhibit the collection leading to a new permanent display at Epping Forest District Museum, due to be completed by the end of 2022.

A spokesperson from Ethiopian History Society UK said: We are delighted to partner with Epping Forest District and Saffron Walden Museums for this vital project.”

Other cultures represented in the collections include West and East Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.

Both museums are looking to work with relevant community and cultural groups linked to these collections which will lead to a major temporary exhibition in 2023.

Hazel Edwards, Area Director (South East) for Arts Council England, said:

We’re delighted to be able to support a project that will see source communities for these exciting collections given the important opportunity to work with Epping Forest District and Saffron Walden Museums to research, reinterpret and redisplay the material for audiences to engage with, explore and enjoy.

"I look forward to the resulting exhibitions and seeing how it might inspire other museums to work with cultural organisations to deliver similar projects.”

For more about the project: https://www.eppingforestdc.gov.uk/museum-world-culture-collections-project/

(pictured left): Image of Saffron Walden Museum's world cultures gallery. 

Learning & Outreach

Saffron Walden Museum is committed to sharing stories from its collections through its learning and outreach services.

We welcome schools and community groups to the Museum or offer outreach sessions. 

Why not book in your school or community group.

Our loan boxes are also available for hire, £18 for 6 weeks, and will be quarantined in between hires to ensure they are Covid secure.

Shop Focus 

With the kids heading back to school this month we would like to turn your attention to the broad range of items available at very reasonable prices in our gift shop. 

Products are selected to align with the museum's exhibitions and events programme and branded with the museum's logo.  Many are bespoke to the museum. 

There are local history books and publications, greetings cards, cuddly toys, children's activity packs, stationary items, historic replica items, as well as beautiful gemstones and fossils. 

Volunteering at the Museum

Today in the museum we have been wishing Welcome Volunteer Pauline a very happy milestone birthday for Saturday.  We hope you enjoy your birthday celebrations Pauline!

Pictured left is Natalie doing a great job on the Welcome desk during the recent Lost Language of Nature Fun Day!

Would you like to join our team?

We are always looking for additional new volunteers to join our welcome desk team on a regular or adhoc basis. 

To find out more about these and ‘Learning and Support’ volunteer opportunities please contact the museum using the details below.