Chester House Estate Museum
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![Visitors look at pottery shards in showcases in front of maps of the British Isles. The text on the wall is titled “On the menu?” with images of fruit and vegetables brought to Britain during the Roman period.]()
New permanent museum displays for a nationally significant heritage site with 10,000 years of human habitation.
Chester House Estate Museum, Northampton, 2021. For Northampton County Council. NHLF Funded.
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![Two men look down at a tabletop map of a local area. Behind the table is a black wall with two archeological illustrations showing a wall town and a suburb with white explanatory text.]()
As one of the few places in the country to demonstrate 10,000 years of human activity, Chester House includes a Roman walled town, evidence from the Mesolithic, Iron Age and Medieval periods, and farm buildings dating back to the 17th century.
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![A woman and two children kneel in front of a display, playing with an interactive activity on the tabletop. Interpretation panels display an illustration of buildings in a landscape, and a map.]()
Our interpretation strategy aimed to uncover these buried narratives, revealing each layer of history and filling in the gaps so visitors could imagine the buildings, people and lifestyles within the context of the landscape. This was achieved through commissioned archaeological illustrations, image and object displays, and an array of interactives.
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![In a gallery a man looks down at a large projection of greenery at floor level, surrounded by a black railing. Interpretation panels line the left and far walls, with large images of landscape and white explanatory text.]()
We commissioned a 3-part animated film from NA Films. This was projected onto a low horizontal platform, imagined as the site of an archeological dig. This film depicts the changing landscape and human activity over 10,000 years with the Nene River as a constant visual anchor.
We commissioned a 3-part animated film which was projected onto a horizontal surface, conceptually the site of an archeological dig with guard rails and visitors looking down. This film depicts the changing landscape and human activity over 10,000 years with the Nene River as a constant visual anchor.
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![A path through a grassy landscape under a blue sky. Slanted wooden text panels are positioned at equal distances along the path. The nearest one features an aerial photo of trees with the title “Neolithic c.4,000-2,200BC."]()
The site story is introduced through a series of outdoor graphic panels that lead towards the museum. The colours, fonts and language are found across the buildings and grounds, linking the tangible experience of the landscape with the historic narrative and creating a coherent visual language across the large site.
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![A man touches coins set into a tabletop exhibit. A4 paper and pencils invite visitors to contribute, and lift-up flaps in the table invite interaction. Wall exhibits feature the title “Resistance to Roman rule?”]()
Active learning is embedded in the displays through an array of tactile interactives. These include touch objects like models of grave slabs and coins, lift-up flips with questions and answers as well as smells, drawing activities and paper-based quizzes.
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![A large brown text panel on an A-frame board in the corner of a room. It is titled “Crafts and Community in Roman and modern Northamptonshire” with images of pottery. Next to it is a handling trolley containing pottery.]()
The project includes an area for temporary displays to showcase new archaeological finds, current projects on site and the ongoing work of the Archaeological Storage Unit. This takes the form of a A-frame with updatable magnetic graphics and a trolley with a showcase and adaptable recess for handling objects and leaflets.
