The image below may be instantly recognisible to people who are familiar with the objects on display at Verulamium Museum, or may be completely mysterious to those who aren't! This is in fact a coat of chain mail armour which was discovered as part of an exceptionally rich Romano-British burial at Folly Lane in St Albans.
Folded iron mail armour from Folly Lane burial, c. AD 55.
The excavations at Folly Lane in 1991-2 revealed the burial of a British chieftain who kept on good terms with the Romans and who had been cremated along with a collection of expensive objects, presumably his personal posessions. These included the remains of enamelled horse equipment, a chariot, evidence of ivory imports and the only complete mail armour suit from this time in the country. All these had been placed on a funeral pyre, the culmination of an elaborate funeral ritual. Pottery excavated from the burial dates it to around AD 55. Unfortunately the identity of the decessed is something that will probably never be known for certain.
John Pearson - Reconstruction of the funeral at the Folly Lane Burial Funeral
The Folly Lane chain mail was selected by our curators to be part of the History of the World project, which is a collaboration between the BBC and the British Museum. Museums around the country have teamed up with the BBC in their area and chosen over 600 objects from their own collections that reflect world history from each area's perspective. St Albans Museums is one of three hundred and fifty museums that are already registered on the site.
You can see the Folly Lane chain mail tunic on the BBC History of the World website (this link will open in a new window). Here you can also explore the other objects included in the project and add your own contribution to the project). You can also read more about the objects from Museums in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire featuring in this project on the BBC Three Counties Radio website (this link will open in a new window).
After a very snowy start to the year we're hoping that things are starting to get back to normal now (although the forecasts suggest we might not have seen the last of the snow for this year yet...). One of the things we're really excited about for the new year is the return of our Reminiscence Coffee Mornings. We did run a series of 6 of these coffee mornings at the start of last year and they were a great success so it is really great to have got this up and running again.
Our Shopping Reminiscence box, also available for loan
Reminiscence is often a lot of fun - for the museums staff as well as members of the public! - and even young children love to do it. It can also be a good opportunity for parents of all ages to share their memories with their children and tell them what it was like when they were their age.
Ballito stockings packet from the 1960s. Many people have memories of the Ballito factory in St Albans.
The coffee mornings are purposely relaxed and informal and give anyone who wants to the opportunity to come into the museum, relax with a cup of tea and a biscuit and handle objects and photographs from the 1930s, 40s, 50s, and 60s. If you would like to bring your own objects and pictures to show people and talk about, that would be wonderful.
Children at Abbey Primary School, St Albans , c.1955
You can click below if you would like to download the flyer with details of dates and themes for the first six coffee mornings we have planned. These details are also availble on our Diary page.
