Atlas Garden’s Story Boards

The Story Of the Atlas Works| The Hunt Family and Earls Colne| Earls Colne down The Centuries | The Workers and Trades of Earls Colne

The Earls Colne Heritage Museum Atlas Gardens Story Boards

Early in 2025, the museum was awarded a grant from Braintree District Council and Community Gardens Orchards and Open Spaces that enabled them to replant the pathway borders in Atlas Gardens and install four story boards to inform residents and visitors to Earls Colne of the rich heritage of the village. The museum itself, opened in 2005 and is housed in the old water tower  (Grade 2 listed) of Hunt’s Atlas Works.  Each board depicts significant periods in Earls Colne history and details particular people, families and events. The background of each board is different aerial views of Earls Colne from 1947 and 1952.  The ‘You are Here’  placements all centre on the Atlas Gardens and a number of ‘information cards’ are overlayed on the aerial photograph telling different stories.  In addition to the Story Boards there is a ‘Talking Post’ where you will be able to listen to some ‘Oral Histories’ from the workers of Hunt’s Atlas Works when it was still the prominent industry in the village. Please click on the links above to view each board and the information they contain. Each board has 12-14 individual pieces of information.

Additional Information

Earls Colne Twinning Association

Earls Colne became ‘twinned’ with Nonancourt, France, in 1975. Visits take place each year, one year in Nonancourt and the next year in Earls Colne. Visitors to Nonancourt will see a fully operational British telephone sited in the main street and presented to Nonancourt in 1995 to celebrate 20 years of Twinning. In 2004 a new road near the Earls Colne Heritage Museum was named ‘Nonancourt Way’.