Chesters Museum

Chesters Museum © David Gill

The collection in the site museum at Chesters Museum was formed by John Clayton (1792-1890) [ODNB]. He inherited the Chesters estate in 1832. The museum opened in 1903. The original layout was by the Egyptologist Sir Wallis Budge (1857-1934).

ODNB notes, ‘In the early twenty-first century the Clayton collection at Chesters Roman Fort and Museum—under the care of English Heritage—remains an internationally recognized site of Roman history and Victorian collecting practices’.

Chesters Museum © David Gill

Tucked inside my MPBW guidebook is a paper guide to the museum by Grace Simpson, the Honorary Curator. The sections include: History of the Museum; The Inscriptions; The Building of Hadrian’s Wall, with sub-sections on the Centurial Stones, Milecastle Inscriptions, Fort Inscriptions, Chesters Garrisons, The Second Ala of Asturians; Religious Sculptures, with a sub-section on Tombstones; Objects in the Show-Cases, with sub-sections on the Chesters Diploma, the Clayton Corn-Measure, the Water-Mill Stones, and Roman Flooring. The guide was printed by the Oxonian Press, Oxford.

Guide to Chesters Museum