About the Museum collection

The Museum contains a number of permanent displays open to the public across one large and two smaller rooms.

Whilst we cannot provide the resources of the county Record Office or larger museums, there is a range of valuable historic information about individuals and community life in our villages, findable through our detailed index.

The archive is kept under controlled conditions, but visitors are welcome to refer to these records under the supervision of the Steward in attendance.

The Main Room

This room contains artefacts and displays about village life in the 19th and 20th century.

In one corner, there is a digital display of rotating images, covering local themes such as carnivals, the A12 bypass, village pubs, Felix Hall, Moores Buses, mills, railways, Kelvedon Fire Brigade, and the Bacon family.

The Property History File is a comprehensive resource compiled by the Kelvedon & Feering Heritage Society, covering many of the buildings in the two villages.

  

clay pipes

Displays include:

  • A century of change - then and now photographs
  • Charles Haddon Spurgeon - a preacher of note
  • Building and architectural items and tools
  • Village Pump and Marler's Well
  • Kelvedon's Voluntary Fire Brigade
  • Schools and children's pastimes
  • Domestic life - household items, ornaments and amusements
  • The Great War and Second World War

 

 childhood
neolithic bones  

Sage Room

This room contains archaeology finds from across the two villages,including:

  • Fossils and other prehistoric objects
  • Stone Age artefacts, including flint axes, blades and scrapers
  • Local Medieval bricks, including small objects from the Chantry House at St Mary's Lands
  • Roman pottery, coins and other small objects from Canonium 'The Place of Reeds'
  • Blake and Dunnett Collections - metal detector field finds from Kelvedon and Feering

Lobby Room

This room contains artefacts and displays that are transport-related, including

  • Crab and Winkle Railway Line
  • Great Eastern Railway
  • Deal's Garage of Kelvedon
  • Moore's Bros. Buses

The Wheldon Archive

This room contains much ephemera relating to the two villages, including:

  • Photographs and postcards
  • Burial records
  • Feering and Kelvedon Preservation Society Bulletins
  • Parish Council records
  • Papers from village community groups

All records are indexed and stored on shelving within the archive. They may be accessed under supervision and the library next door means you can copy documents and photographs up to A4 for a small charge per copy.