Our Curators' Top Ten

Grayson Perry grew up in Chelmsford and is one of the UK’s most prominent and incisive commentators on contemporary society and culture. He continues to make work in a variety of media but is best known for his ceramics. Thought provoking themes for his pots draw on personal and social concerns and are elaborately decorated. 

Chelmsford Sissies was created for an exhibition at Hylands House, shortly before he won the Turner Prize in 2003. The Gallery image shows the pink embroidered dress Claire, his alter ego wore to pick up the prize. Chelmsford Sissies tells the imaginary story of a group of Civil War soldiers led by Sir Thomas Sissye who, due to a cowardly act of surrender to the Parliamentarian forces, were paraded through the streets of Chelmsford dressed as women before being executed. After the war the town commemorated the men by setting up a special festival and each year men would dress up as woman and the ‘Sissies of Chelmsford’ would parade through the town. 

Possibly the oldest piece of gold metalwork found in Essex. This exquisite and extremely rare item was found by a local metal detectorist. It is dated to the very beginning of the Bronze Age around 2500BC, and in fact predates Bronze as a metal.

If unwound the gold strip is likely to have been used like a crown or a choker, possibly for a woman but certainly for someone of great power and importance.

It measures 21mm high, 15mm wide and weighs 15 grams. The gold is 96% pure, which is consistent with a Bronze Age date.

It is part of the Beaker Culture, a phenomenon which originated in Spain and Central Europe and swept across the Mediterranean.

The fact that it was found wound up in this tight spiral suggests that it had been ritually decommissioned, possibly buried with its owner – although sadly nothing else was discovered. If not buried with its owner, the Diadem may have been a Votive or gift to a god.

This rare Roman male figurine made from copper alloy was found by a metal detectorist in Roxwell and dates to the Roman period (43- 410 AD). He measures 65mm high and is wearing a woollen hooded cloak known as a Birrus Britannicus which is worn over a short-belted tunic. He carries a quiver over his right shoulder for his arrows.

The character appears to be a hunter, well-dressed for going out into the woods on a cold, rainy British day. The fact that this little piece of portable art is not only incredibly detailed and of fine quality, but also shows a distinctively British character, making it extremely unusual, and suggests that he was made in Roman Britain rather than imported. Characters from this period of Roman rule usually wore clothes of a style from Gaul and the North-Western provinces of the Roman Empire.

Roman Britain was a well-known exporter of quality woollen garments like this, and it is thought that the Birrus Britannicus could be the first hoodie exported to the wider Roman Empire.

The American glam rock star, famous for her black leather jumpsuits, made Chelmsford her home in the 1980s.

Suzi formed her first band, “Suzi Soul and the Pleasure Seekers” in 1965 with her three sisters. The group disbanded in 1970, but not before they had entertained troops in Vietnam. Later she came to the UK and signed under RAK records.

She has had string of British hits such as “Can the Can”, fronting her own band, usually dressed in leather. “My first leather jumpsuit was made for my first number one: Can the Can, it was only to the knee and worn with snakeskin boots. Every single jumpsuit after that was made with full length legs”. The jumpsuit pictured dates to 1975.

Since then she has sold over 50 million records, featured in the TV hit Happy Days and DJ for BBC Radio 2.

Chelmsford Museum was founded in 1835 by the Chelmsford Philosophical Society, and subsequent philanthropic contributions. Building on this Victorian legacy a large collection of taxidermy was left to the museum in 1932 following the death of Dr John Henry Salter (1841- 1932). The GP lived and worked in Tolleshunt D'Arcy, near Maldon and was a freemason, sportsman, sporting-dog breeder and horticulturist.

He enjoyed big game hunting and visited Russia on several occasions to hunt for Bears, Wolves, Elk and Lynx.

One of the museum’s surviving specimens of the Salter collection which remains a favourite to this day was from a Russian hunting trip in 1905, affectionately known as Boris.