£10 – 50

• A digital adoption certificate with a photo of your object
• Your name on our adopter’s Thank You board in the museum
• Subscription to the CMDF quarterly newsletter

£60 – 150

• Zoom talks and Q&As with our curators/specialists
• A physical and digital adoption certificate with a photo of your object
• Your name on our adopter’s Thank You board in the museum
• Subscription to the CMDF quarterly newsletter

Adopt by donating: Bronze £10 / Silver £60

Find me at: Colchester Castle

This jar was made in the 1600s and would have contained medicine, dispensed by a local apothecary, similar to a modern-day pharmacist. The number of these ‘drug jars’ found in Colchester, suggest a large number of apothecaries operating in the town centre. Many were excavated from Lion Walk where it is thought they were dumped as ‘rubbish’ from the apothecaries on the High Street next to the Red Lion Inn.

Adopt by donating: Bronze £10 / Silver £60

Find me at: Colchester Castle

There is little archaeological evidence from the Anglo-Saxon period in Colchester, though we know people lived in and around the town. The Ardleigh pommel is an exceptional item that would have once belonged to a wealthy and important Anglo-Saxon leader. It would have sat on the end of a sword’s hilt as decoration.

Adopt by donating: Bronze £10 / Silver £60

Find me at: Hollytrees Museum

This brass oyster gauge was made in the 1500s. Colchester is well known for its ‘Colchester Native’ oysters. The oyster fishery is officially opened for business on the first Friday of September each year by the Mayor. The Oyster Feast is held on the last Friday in October each year at the Town Hall. The feast is regarded as one of the key events in the civic calendar. its origins can be traced back to the St. Denis Fair of the 1300s.

Adopt by donating: Bronze £10 / Silver £60

Find me at: the Natural History Museum

The nautilus is a marine mollusc, related to shrimps and octopi. The Chambered Nautilus is known as a ‘living fossil’, as the species has remained relatively unchanged for millions of years. They first appeared around 550 million years ago and there is fossil evidence that they lived here during the Cretaceous, 65 million years ago when the area was under a tropical sea. The Chambered nautilus is now threatened with extinction, as it is traded for its attractive, patterned shell.

Adopt by donating: Bronze £30 / Silver £100

Find me at: Colchester Castle

Medieval mealtimes could be incredibly messy, with fatty meats and greasy cooked foods. In order to keep hands clean, vessels in the shapes of animals were placed on tables to be used to clean hands throughout the meal. These were known as aquamaniles, from the Latin words Aqua (water) and Manos (hands).

Adopt by donating: Bronze £30 / Silver £100

Find me at: Colchester Castle

The Romans had a dirty sense of humour. As well as being a symbol of protection within Roman Colchester, the phallus (penis) was also used as a form of joke. The decoration on this pot is actually imitating a chariot race, which would usually have horses in groups of four.

Adopt by donating: Bronze £30 / Silver £100

Find me at: Colchester Castle

The Romans buried their dead with a range of different items that they believed their loved ones could take with them into the afterlife. One common find from Roman graves in Colchester are ceramic vases with cartoonish faces on them. These “Facepots” are believed to have been particularly popular with Roman soldiers and may have been caricatures of the individual buried inside.

Adopt by donating: Bronze £30 / Silver £100

Find me at: Colchester Castle

This ceramic ‘pipeclay’ figurine forms part of an early Roman burial known as the ‘Child’s Grave’. It is one of ten figurines of comic old men included in the grave, unique in Britain. They would have been made in Gaul, modern day France, and imported to Colchester. These objects are mysterious – they have been interpreted as caricatures of learned men, such as philosophers or teachers, or comic diners.

Adopt by donating: Bronze £50 / Silver £150

Find me at: Colchester Castle

This gold Iron Age coin is known as a ‘stater’.  The front shows an ear of corn with the letter ‘A’ to the left and ‘N’ to the right. These letters are an abbreviation for Camulodunon, the name of Colchester in the Iron Age, where the coin was minted. The back shows a horse rearing with the letters ‘CVN’ below. These letters are an abbreviation of Cunobelin, the name of the king who reigned at Colchester c.AD 10-40, home of the Catuvellauni/Trinovantes tribe.

Adopt by donating: Bronze £50 / Silver £150

Find me at: Colchester Castle

Roman Colchester was a town filled with soldiers at the time Boudicca attacked. Whether they still served in the army or had retired there, there would have been a wealth of weapons and armour. Despite this, the towns inhabitants were unable to fend off the attacking Britons and the town was burned to the ground. This helmet is actually made up of several helmets that were destroyed during Boudicca’s attack.

Adopt by donating: Bronze £50 / Silver £150

Find me at: Hollytrees Museum

This mahogany longcase clock was made by Thomas Hedge (2) in 1790. The design of the face depicts the Seasons and Father Time. The Hedge family were pivotal in the story of clockmaking in Colchester. This example is part of the Bernard Mason collection. A prominent Colchester businessman, his collection of Colchester clocks is probably the largest concentration of clocks from a single town anywhere in Britain.

Adopt by donating: Bronze £50 / Silver £150

Find me at: Colchester Castle

This Roman gold armlet is one of a matching pair. It is part of the ‘Fenwick Treasure’, discovered in 2014 under the Fenwick store in Colchester High Street. The treasure is one of the finest groups of jewellery from early Roman Britain. It was buried when Queen Boudica attacked the city in AD 60/1, but was never recovered. The gold jewellery in the hoard is similar to some of those discovered in Pompeii, which were buried by the eruption of Vesuvius almost 20 years later.