The Clayton Museum - 50 years of collecting

The Clayton Museum is adjacent to Chesters Roman Fort on Hadrian's Wall. It was built in 1895 to house the huge collection of 11,000 Roman atrefacts from the forts, milecastles and turrets along the wall. These formed the collection of John Clayton, the man attributed as being 'the man who saved the wall'. He protected much of the wall and forts around his home at Chesters, saving it from quarrying and stone robbing.

 

John Clayton (1792–1890) was an antiquarian who owned Chesters and by the time he died he owned five forts in total. He excavated the forts and surrounding area for around 50 years, thus amassing some wonderful Roman finds, which have enabled us to gain a good understanding of how Hadrian's Wall was constructed. This is reflected through such personal artefacts as the 53 centurial stones, these show us the names of soldiers involved in building the Wall. There are also some amazing inscriptions, sculptures and religious materials, altars and shrines. The museum itself still has many of the original Edwardian display cabinets which add to its character! The slideshow below shows just a fraction of the collection but enough to reflect the wonder of this amazing museum!