Hollytrees Museum

After reviewing the photos I took on the trip to Colchester Town to visit Firstsite and document the surrounding buildings that took an interest to myself, I chose a building which I wanted to take forward and research in depth.

The building I chose was Hollytrees Museum.

I then went onto researching the Museum itself including information of the era it was built in:

Hollytrees Museum was built in 1718 by Thomas Blagden, a London builder who built the house for Elizabeth Comelisen of Camberwell, London. In 1920's Hollytrees was sold to Colchester Corporation, who then employed local architects, Duncan Clark and Becketti in 1926 to convert it into a museum which resulted in substantial alterations to the building. The museum then opened to the public in 1929 displaying medieval antiquities and later bygones.

In August 2001 the museum reopened after fourteen months of major redevelopment funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. This saw the installation of a lift, new visitor facilities and creation of the present displays on the themes of domestic life and childhood in Colchester over the last 300 years.

(Image sourced from: http://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/12869426.HISTORY__Queen_Mary_visits_Hollytrees_Museum/)

Here is an image of when Queen Mary (our current Queen's grandmother) visited the Museum in 1938, which was dug out by staff from Colchester Museums. Apparently shows particularly interested in the dolls house collection, which is still there today.