Hollytrees Museum

Hollytrees Museum stands in Castle Park at the heart of Colchester, close to the castle. The building began as an eighteenth-century house named Hollytrees, which became a museum in 1929 after serving as a private home. Two holly trees planted in 1729 gave the house its name. The museum holds local history collections and Colchester’s Visitor Information Centre. In 2011 it added antique clocks from the closed Tymperleys Clock Museum. A large theropod dinosaur fossil nicknamed ‘Juliasaurus’ went on display in 2026, the first dinosaur shown here. Inside, visitors find period rooms and changing exhibits tracing the town’s past. The house itself is a Grade I listed building with elegant eighteenth-century architecture. Outside, the park offers benches and paths beside the holly trees planted long ago.