Colchester has so much more to offer. Apart from the spacious Castle Museum, there is also the Natural History Museum, the Clock Museum (situated in a 15th century timber framed house) as well as the Hollytrees Museum which shows a rich social history of Colchester town.
Hollytrees Museum
We opted to check out the Hollytrees museum, which is located right opposite Colchester Castle Museum. This turned out to be amazing! The building itself boasts a beautiful Georgian style with lavish front garden featuring lots of vines entwined around sections of the building.
The museum is free to enter and look around in.
It offers some great insight into domestic life living in Colchester over the past 300 years. I learned of many characters from Colchester’s fascinating and varied history.
Upstairs is the clock gallery that showcases a collection of large grandfather clocks. Early examples of long case clocks. There were also portraits and toys detailing the lives of each member's role in the typical household.
Though my favourite was the dolls house. It is a replication of the house setting hundreds of years ago where you can discover what family life was like for the rich and poor. The basement was mainly used for preparing food and the servant's quarters being on the top floor where it is colder.
The displays are intriguing and beautifully presented with examples from down the decades. I was transported back to the days even before vacuum cleaners was invented. Rich families used to keep many servants to run their house for them. Advances in those primitive technologies only started in the 1800s, I was fascinated to see the early interpretations of these devices.
The selection of washing machinery used in the old days was another interesting one for me. Most of the clothing would actually be damaged by frequent washes so the idea of a weekly rinsing routine was only started from 1800s when the washing machine was invented. Trying out the dolly peg, I can only imagine washing back then to be such time-consuming and a strenuous task. I never appreciated the convenience of modern day life with all these advanced new machines in our lives!
Although the museum itself doesn’t take too long to navigate through, I found it great in its own right and imparting plenty of interesting information for it's visitors to take home with them. Very well worth the time spent!
Firstsite Museum
Another recommendation from my friend was to check out a brand new art gallery "Firstsite". This is a relatively new addition to the town, this is a large curvilinear building entirely covered in bright gold copper-aluminium panels and designed by the Uruguayan architect, Rafael Vinoly. It is also known as “The Golden Banana”!
Firstsite is one amazing building. A very contemporary design and very aesthetically unique comparing to the rest of the town indeed!
The gallery hosts a good cross section of arts and other activities, such as exhibitions, films and a popular café.
The curved interior walls make for a very impressive space. Currently on display is the space-painting by Chinese artist Zhang Enli. He lives and works in Shanghai and was trained in the art of traditional Chinese ink wash painting. A very talented individual indeed!
I also really love the Grayson Perry’s exhibit set “The Life of Julie Cope”. This is a unique presentation of artworks and drawings where a house was build using his trademark artistic techniques. A great little exhibition with lots of woodblock prints, models, sketchbooks and audio visual presentations, etc.
To wrap up, there is also an on-site cinema and many things for children to do. Though with the abundance of available space, I am sure a lot more could be fit in there in the future.
Finally, there is a quaint little café at the entrance foyer where we ended our tour. It is a great place to pop in with friends to have a nice, relaxing afternoon.
Colchester is a picturesque, charming Roman city and priding itself with some of the most amazing new museum of modern art I have ever seen. Definitely a great place to visit and one I will surely be returning to very soon.
科尔切斯特镇景点很多，除了城堡博物馆，还有自然历史博物馆，时钟博物馆以及冬青树博物馆等。由于时间关系，我们选择了冬青树博物馆。
冬青树博物馆
这个博物馆也在科尔切斯特中心，靠近城堡博物馆。它本身是一个美丽的格鲁吉亚风格的别墅，以前曾是私人住宅但后来被改成了一个博物馆。它的前花院有许多不同形状的树木，蛮特别的。
博物馆免费对外开放，主要介绍科尔切斯特镇过去三百年的历史，里面有展示房屋的模型以及过去的家庭生活情况。
楼上是时钟画廊，陈列了一系列古老，像祖父辈使用过的长时钟。还有不少这个家庭成员的肖像和玩具。
我最喜欢的是玩偶屋。这是根据几百年前的房子复制出来的小模型，让我们了解过去富人和穷人的家庭生活。地下室主要用来准备食物，而仆人通常住在较冷的顶层。
展馆里还有很多其它有趣的展品让我很着迷，例如真空吸尘器的早期发明。以前富有的家庭需要很多仆人为他们清洁打理房子。所以在19世纪吸尘器发明以前，就已经有不少各种各样的版本，挺有意思的，呵呵。
另一个让我感兴趣的是旧时用的洗衣工具。以前大多数衣服会因为频繁洗涤而受损，所以直到19世纪洗衣机的发明，人们才开始有每周洗衣的习惯！看着展出的这些古老沉重的洗衣工具，我可以想象过去洗涤是如何耗时耗力，好艰巨的任务哦！我还从来没有想过日常生活中的家电为我们的生活提供了多少便利！
冬青树博物馆并不大，不需要很长时间就可以看完，但它在有限的空间内向大家展示了许多当地历史，挺值得一看。
Firstsite艺术馆
朋友还向我推荐了科尔切斯特的一个新艺术馆“Firstsite ”。由乌拉圭建筑师Rafael Vinoly设计，整个曲线建筑被金色的铜铝合金板覆盖着，无论是造型或是材质都极具现代感，也被称为“金香蕉”。如此现代的建筑，与附近的古代遗迹形成了鲜明的对比，让人有视觉上的冲击体验。
作为当代艺术机构，Firstsite艺术馆并没有自己的永久藏品，主要是举办各种艺术家作品展以及其他活动。主廊道顺着弯曲的建筑外形，沿着缓缓变化的坡道走近展览空间内。在倾斜的内墙上展出的是中国艺术家张恩利的“空间画”。这位华人艺术家在上海工作生活，但接受过中国水墨画艺术培训，非常有才华！
我也很喜欢Grayson Perry的展览。它的作品名为“Julie Cope的生活”，是一个很特别的艺术项目。Grayson以自己对艺术的热情和诠释，建造了一栋在艾塞克斯的房子。房子里外的每一个细节都是一件艺术作品，包括屋顶的瓦砖以及屋里的所有装饰和家具，让人赞叹不已！
展品还包括房子的建造图纸，大量的木版画，模型，速写本甚至是视频演示等，看得我流连忘返，的确是一件伟大的作品！
艺术馆里还配备了一个电影院和儿童活动中心。这里的空间非常大，我相信不用多久，它将会展出更多的艺术作品！
入口处还有一个礼品商店和带有室外平台的咖啡厅。周末下午和朋友过来享受阳光午餐与室外美景，应该很休闲惬意吧！
科尔切斯特真是一个迷人的城镇，从古老的罗马遗迹到新建的现代艺术馆，非常值得推荐的好去处！相信我很快会再回来的，呵呵。