The museum is in the stable block of the old Marks Hall after which the school is named, There is a walled garden which will be worth a revisit in summer, part of the walled garden date back to the 17th century. The hall was demolished after fire in 1847.
The museum has galleries on the Romans and the finds in the area. You may remember I visited the site of the Roman Temple in the town. There is also information on the parsishers that were combined to make the New Town. There is a brief bit on Hester Woodley the last african slave in Harlow. If ever Little Pardon church is open I'll have wo wander down and see her memorial. She was never freed but she was the only one of the enslaved people the family memorialised odd. There is a bicycle museum and artifacts common to the town since 1947 and pictures of houses and rooms. Oh and information on many of the companies that were based here. And boy how many good jobs have we lost. Ahem.
Now obviously this is not the V&A or the Natural History Museum but it is well worth a visit because there is a lot of local history I expect many people no longer know. There were names I knew thanks to stories from my parents. It also contained one thing I was VERY excited to see.
Coins have been found dating from pre-conquest to the end of the occupation!
These windows are from Netteswell church which I visited earlier in the year.
The temple site
Limestone head of Minvera.
Medusa
Bacchus
My dad's family left the east end of London in 1940 once the Blitz started and got off at Burnt Mill station (it is now Harlow Town station but my dad ALWAYS called it Burnt Mill). Dad sais there was a row of cottages one was enpty and they broke in and spent the night (he was 11 at the time). They were evenutally but up in a "big house" called the Priory. One of the first V2's landed in the field next to it one night whilst they were alseep and blew the back off of their house!! I mentioned this to a volunteer who pointed me to these fragments of said V2!!! WOW. The family were rehomed into Frogs Hall which is also long gone. Most of Harlows big houses seem to have vanished.
I have shared this before but there was a time all our road signs looked like that.
1 comment:
What a wonderful local museum - you are right Pete many of these have so much of interest especially on local history. Glad you found V2 fragments after your Dad talking of the house. It looks as though it has a pretty little garden too. Alawys worth exploring locally as I often find stuff I have overlooked or not bothered with in the past.
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