News, Museum, Heritage | 29 October 2025

Essex Regiment Museum in Chelmsford set to close in January 2026

The Essex Regiment Museum Trust (ERM) has announced that it will dissolve and transfer its extensive collection of objects into the ownership of the Royal Anglian Regiment Museum Trust (RARM), to be cared for by specialist military curators.

The Essex Regiment Museum collection consists of more than 50,000 items which tell the story of the County Regiment from its formation in 1751 through to its amalgamation into the East Anglian Regiment in 1958. The collection is currently housed in and managed by the Museum of Chelmsford, and a selection of its artefacts has been on display in a dedicated gallery within the museum since 1973.

This gallery will close on Sunday 4 January 2026 and a small selection of Chelmsford related artefacts will be displayed elsewhere in the Museum of Chelmsford to continue telling the story of the Essex Regiment in Chelmsford.

The Royal Anglian Regiment is the successor regiment to the Essex Regiment. The Royal Anglian Regiment charity supports serving and former members of the Royal Anglian Regiment and its predecessor regiments. The museum of the regiment is located at IWM Duxford and shares the history of the regiment through artefacts, photographs, documents and other archive materials.

The decision to transfer the Essex Regiment Museum’s collection into the ownership of the Royal Anglian Regiment Museum will help ensure the preservation of the collection for years to come. The move places the collection in the care of a dedicated military museum, with specialist curators to research and manage the artefacts.

Kate Reeder, Curatorial and Learning Manager at the Museum of Chelmsford, explains that this move for the Essex Regiment collection reflects the history of the regiment itself:

“This move for the Essex Regiment Museum is not unusual – we’re seeing smaller regimental collections across the country being subsumed into larger military museums that are better placed to care for them. The move is also quite fitting in a way as it reflects the evolving history of the Essex Regiment, which by 1964 had amalgamated with other county regiments across England – includingCambridgeshire and Lincolnshire – to become the Royal Anglian Regiment.“So, as the Essex Regiment Museum moves to the Royal Anglian Regiment Museum, I know that this nationally significant collection will really benefit from the outstanding military expertise within RARM’s team.”

See the press release

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