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Chertsey Museum

Chertsey Museum's costume collection is of national significance, and contains over 6,000 items of men's, women's and children's clothing and accessories dating from the late 17th century to the present day. Displays take the form of themed annual exhibitions aimed at educational as well as casual visitors. They draw upon the huge variety of garments and cover subjects such as the history of children's wear, underwear, and fashionable fabrics and colours.

The newly extended and refurbished Museum features a new Fashion Accessories Gallery - a 'costume discovery zone' housing examples from the extensive collection of smaller decorative items. These include a wide array of bags and purses, fans, lace, parasols and shoes dating from the 18th century to the present, and featuring a variety of fabrics and decorative techniques. The extension also houses an education room for workshops and talks. Workshops will cover subjects such as printing, dyeing and different methods of decoration.

The museum is committed to education and is very keen to encourage contact with schools. It aims to provide a flexible and comprehensive costume resource for teachers, and students carrying out independent research. Staff can be booked to give talks, at the Museum or in school, on subjects such as fabrics, decorative techniques and the changing silhouette through history. School loan boxes are also available, containing Victorian adults' and children's clothes and accessories. Sets of Victorian replica costume, made using historically accurate fabrics and techniques, are used for study and to try on. These are very useful for studying cut and construction, and are accompanied by a full report by the maker, which includes fabric samples, fifth scale versions of patterns and photographs.

The Museum also houses an extensive costume library containing original source materials such as fashion plates as well as secondary sources relating to the collections. Students can access the library by appointment. Appointments can also be made to see specific items from the reserve costume collections for the purposes of in-depth study.

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