History is at hand with free pop-up exhibitions in Chester

Historical artefacts will be brought out of museum collections for people to handle and hear more about at two free events in Chester led by University students.

The chance to take hold of and venture into the past is on offer at the Storyhouse cultural centre on Thursday March 3, from 1pm to 3pm, and at the History Hub in Chester Market, in the Forum Shopping Centre, on Friday March 4, from 12pm to 3pm.

University of Chester History and Archaeology students will help to bring the historical objects to life at both pop-up exhibitions in the city. With their guidance, visitors can get up-close to original artefacts from, and gain insights on, medieval and early modern times.

Katherine Wilson, Associate Professor of Later Medieval European History at the University of Chester said: “These pop-up exhibitions provide the opportunity to literally hold the past in the palm of your hands.

“People of all ages are welcome to come along and handle the artefacts which include shoes, keys, tiles, pottery, ceramics, rings, pilgrim badges and devotional tokens.

“History is more often focused on the elite but, through these objects, visitors can discover the stories of everyday people who lived hundreds of years ago and help us to challenge what we know about the past.”

The pop-up exhibitions are part of a UK Research and Innovation Arts and Humanities Research Council Grant for Follow on Funding for Impact and Engagement, awarded to the project ‘Mobility of Objects Across Boundaries 1000-1700 (MOB)’. The initiative is led by Prof Wilson, Leah Clark - Associate Professor in the History of Art at the Department of Continuing Education, at the University of Oxford, and Liz Montgomery - Senior Curator at Grosvenor Museum in Chester.

They take place ahead of longer-running MOB exhibitions, featuring Virtual Reality Reconstructions of St John’s in Chester and the Water Tower in the Middle Ages. These will be held at the Grosvenor Museum from April 30 until July 9 and at Chester Cathedral from August 22 until September 18, 2022.

For more information on the MOB project, including events, please visit:

https://mob.chester.ac.uk/.

Pictured - Hold the past in the palm of your hands at the University of Chester student-led exhibitions.