Free entry to the Museum of Chelmsford on 19 and 20 September, when you can vote on the 20-object shortlist that decides its new Top 10 Treasure Trail.

The Museum of Chelmsford is asking residents to pick the objects it puts in front of visitors. Curators have shortlisted 20 items from the museum’s own collection, and a public vote will cut that to ten. The winners become a new Top 10 Treasure Trail, printed in the museum’s 2027 visitor guide. (Chelmsford City Council, 28 August 2026)

The shortlist was drawn up by museum staff and volunteers. Voting is open now and runs until April 2027.

The cheapest time to take part is the weekend of 19 and 20 September, when the museum opens free to everyone from 10am to 4pm as part of Chelmsford’s Heritage Open Days. (Museum of Chelmsford) Admission is normally £4 an adult, with children, young people and carers free. (Museum of Chelmsford)

What is on the shortlist

The council named seven of the 20 objects when it announced the vote. They range from prehistory to the recent past:

  • a prehistoric mammoth tusk and jaw
  • the Great Baddow Coin Hoard
  • the Bronze Age gold diadem found at Danbury in 2016
  • the Luftwaffe model of the Hoffman and Marconi factories
  • Sir Grayson Perry’s 2003 pot, The Chelmsford Sissies
  • the sign from the Dukes nightclub
  • Boris the Bear, the museum’s taxidermy bear

The remaining 13 are on display in the Discover Studio on the ground floor, where the voting happens.

Claire Willetts, curator and exhibitions officer at the museum, said the choice belonged to residents rather than staff.

“As a community-focused museum, with displays, exhibitions and activities that are shaped by our local stories, memories and connections, we felt it right that local people should determine what objects best represent Chelmsford’s history,” she said.

The hoard behind the exhibition

The vote sits inside Timeless Treasures, the exhibition built around the Great Baddow Hoard, which runs from 18 July 2026 to 11 April 2027 and is free with museum entry. (Museum of Chelmsford)

The hoard is 933 Iron Age gold coins, dated to between 60 and 20 BC and found at Great Baddow in 2020. The museum calls it the largest recorded hoard of Iron Age gold coins ever found in Britain. It was bought for the collection in May 2025 with a £250,000 grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, alongside contributions from Chelmsford City Council, the Friends of Chelmsford Museums, the Essex Society for Archaeology and History, the Essex Heritage Trust, the Council for British Archaeology East and the Essex Numismatics Society. (Museum of Chelmsford)

Most of the coins are thought to have been made in territory later linked to the Catuvellauni. Finding them at Great Baddow, in what is usually treated as Trinovantian ground, is the point archaeologists are interested in. Roman sources describe friction between the two tribes. Until this hoard there was little in the ground to back that up.

The museum is also blunt about how it was found. The detectorist did not have permission to be on the land, and did not declare the find under the Treasure Act 1996 as required. That, the museum says, limited what could be learned from where the coins were sitting.

After the exhibition closes, the hoard goes on permanent display from spring 2027.

What it means for you

  • To vote in person, ask for a token at the admission desk and cast it in the Discover Studio on the ground floor. If you think the shortlist has missed something, you can write a suggestion down for the team.
  • To vote free, come on 19 or 20 September. The museum is open 10am to 4pm both days at no charge.
  • To vote online, watch the museum’s Facebook or Instagram. The council says there will be one online voting weekend this September. The date has not been published yet, so we cannot tell you which weekend it is.
  • The deadline is April 2027, so there is no rush, but the free weekend is the one date in the diary.
  • Normal opening is daily, 10am to 5pm from April to October, with last entry at 4pm. It drops to 10am to 4pm from November to March.
  • Found something in your garden? The museum hosts the Essex Finds Liaison Officer’s Saturday finds surgery, upstairs in the Wells Suite. The next date is 21 November. Appointments last 15 minutes and must be booked in advance through the officer’s online booking system. Bring each item bagged separately and labelled with a six-figure grid reference or what3words location. (Museum of Chelmsford)

Free activities also run across the 19 and 20 September weekend, according to the council: a treasure screen printing workshop with the artist Katie Kennedy, a Collecting Our Future wax workshop with the sculptor Caitlin Hazell, and tour guide Rachel’s talks as Mrs Wells, the wife of a former owner of Oaklands House.

The museum is at Oaklands Park, Moulsham Street, CM2 9AQ. If you are driving in, see what parking costs in Chelmsford. The full festival programme is in our guide to Heritage Open Days in Chelmsford, and there is more to fill a weekend in things to do in Chelmsford.

Key dates

Timeline of the Museum of Chelmsford Timeless Treasures exhibition, from its opening on 18 July 2026 through the free Heritage Open Days weekend on 19 and 20 September 2026 and the close of voting in April 2027, to the hoard going on permanent display in spring 2027
Key dates for the Timeless Treasures exhibition and the Top 10 Treasure Trail vote. Sources: Museum of Chelmsford and Chelmsford City Council. Graphic by The Chelmsford Times.

Sources