Museums

The following museums and centres are especially important for Essex geology:

Centre for Biodiversity and Geodiversity
The Green Centre, Wat Tyler Country Park, Pitsea Hall Lane, Pitsea, Basildon SS16 4UH
The Essex Field Club’s Centre for Biodiversity and Geodiversity in Pitsea holds the club’s large Essex natural history collections which includes a fine collection of Essex minerals, rocks and fossils. The centre is the culmination of an aspiration born in the early 1990s when the club had to step in after the closure of the Passmore Edwards Museum in Stratford and save the collections that its members had accumulated over the club’s long history since 1880. Unfortunately only a small number of specimens are currently on display but it is hoped that more of the collection will be accessible in the long term. The centre is currently open weekends with volunteer help.
www.essexfieldclub.org.uk

The Green Centre, Pitsea

Chelmsford and Essex Museum
Oaklands Park, Moulsham Street, Chelmsford, CM2 9AQ. Telephone: 01245 605700.
The museum holds a large geological collection and some specimens are on public display.
www.chelmsford.gov.uk/museums

Colchester Natural History Museum
High Street, Colchester, CO1 1DN. Telephone: 01206 282941
The museum holds a large geological collection and some specimens are on public display.
www.colchester.cimuseums.org.uk

Saffron Walden Museum
Museum Street, Saffron Walden, CB10 1JL. Telephone: 01799 510333
The museum holds a large geological collection and has a purpose-built geology gallery.
www.saffronwaldenmuseum.org

Southend Central Museum
Victoria Avenue, Southend-on-Sea, SS2 6ES. Telephone: 01702 434449
The museum holds a large geological collection and some specimens are on public display.
www.southendmuseums.co.uk

The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EQ. Telephone: 01223 333456.
One of the world’s major collections of fossils. Museum staff are willing to help with the identification of fossils, and to advise on their treatment and care.
www.sedgwickmuseum.org

Natural History Museum
Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD. Telephone: 020 7942 5000
The Museum houses one of the world’s largest natural history collections with over 68 million specimens of plants, animals, rocks, fossils and minerals.
www.nhm.ac.uk