Castle House, Dedham

Colchester / United Kingdom

Castle House in Denham, Essex, England was the home of Sir Alfred Munnings from 1919 till his death in 1959. Architecturally the building contains a mixture of Tudor and Georgian elements.Shortly after his death his widow established The Violet Munnings Trust Fund in 1962 to establish and run an Art Museum in Castle House, in accordance with Munnings' wish that his pictures and estate be left to the nation. In 1965 Castle House Trust was formed whereby the house itself, surrounding land, all of Munnings' paintings still in the possession of Lady Munnings, and further amounts of money and investments were made over to the Trust to form the basis of a museum of his works.

Hollytrees Museum

Colchester / United Kingdom

Hollytrees Museum is a free to visit, publicly owned museum in the centre of Colchester and close to Colchester Castle. It is situated in an eighteenth-century house , which was used as a private residence until 1929, when it became a museum.The first house on the site, known as "Symnells" after its owner, was later bought by the Shaw family, and passed from John Shaw to John Shaw III and John Shaw IV. When he died a minor, the house passed into chancery; his mother Jane Lessingham bought it but soon died. The modern house was constructed in for Elizabeth Cornelisen, who had bought the site from Lessingham's executors and promptly tore down the existing structure in poor condition. Construction commenced on 10 May 1718 at a cost of £630 plus brickwork and tiling; the total refurbishment was estimated to have cost £2000. She died soon after, bequeathing the house to her niece, Sarah Creffeild , who left it to her second husband Charles Gray. It was, at that time, known as "Esqr Creffield's [sic]". Possession of the house reverted to the Creffeilds; through Thamer Creffeild to James Round, who left to his brother Charles, who left it to his son Charles Gray Round, who left to it to his nephew James Round. The Rounds finally sold it to the Corporation of Colchester in 1922, a purchase paid for privately by Viscount Cowdray and his wife. It became a museum in 1929.The house is known as Hollytrees after two holly trees planted in the grounds by Charles Gray in 1729 and is now a free to visit museum serving the centre of Colchester and specialising in local history. It is a grade I listed building.

University of Essex

Colchester / United Kingdom

The University of Essex is a public research university in Essex, England. It was established in 1963, welcomed its first students in 1964 and received its royal charter in 1965. Essex is a plate glass university, a group of universities which were established in the 1960s. Essex's motto, ’Thought the harder, heart the keener’, is adapted from the Anglo-Saxon poem The Battle of Maldon. Essex's largest campus is the Colchester Campus within Wivenhoe Park, less than a mile from Wivenhoe and two miles from Colchester. There is also a campus in Southend-on-Sea and East 15 Acting School is based at the Loughton Campus. Essex has 19 academic partnerships in the UK and around the world. UK partnerships include University of Essex Online with Kaplan Open Learning; Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust and University of Essex International College. International partnerships include a franchise arrangement with Kaplan Singapore and double and dual degrees with several universities in Europe and Asia. This includes a double degree with Northwest University in Xi'an approved by the Chinese Ministry of Education. Essex is one of eight young universities which are part of the Young Universities for the Future of Europe alliance, which was selected by the European Commission to create one of the first European Universities, cross-border alliances of higher education institutions created to promote staff and student mobility. Essex is also a founding partner of the Young European Research Universities network. Essex was named University of the Year at the Times Higher Education Awards in 2018. The university has produced many notable alumni in several fields, including two Nobel laureates—one of only three non-Russell Group universities with an alumni including a Nobel laureate—a head of state, foreign ministers, MPs, scientists, artists, politicians, authors; including a Booker Prize winner, and filmmakers, including a BAFTA Award winner.

Colchester Castle

Colchester / United Kingdom

Colchester Castle is a Norman castle in Colchester, Essex, England, dating from the second half of the eleventh century. The keep of the castle is mostly intact and is the largest example of its kind anywhere in Europe, due to its being built on the foundations of a Roman temple. The castle endured a three-month siege in 1216, but had fallen into disrepair by the seventeenth century when the curtain walls and some of the keep's upper parts were demolished; its original height is debated. The remaining structure was used as a prison and was partially restored as a large garden pavilion, but was purchased by Colchester Borough Council in 1922. The castle has since 1860 housed Colchester Museum, which has an important collection of Roman exhibits. It is a scheduled monument and a Grade I listed building.