The exhibition in Stowmarket, Suffolk is open to the public during the normal opening hours of the museum. Out of Season the museum will be open on a limited basis from Monday to Friday, 10.00- 15.00.

Engineering activity in Colchester is featured in The Museum of East Anglian Life. This includes a number of products and models produced by local engineering companies together with interesting illustrations and diagrams. 
For further information contact the secretary (see Officers & Contacts) or the museum directly at (01449) 612229 and the website www.eastanglianlife.org.uk/

Norwich Engineering Society
We are pleased to promote the Norwich Engineering Society. For details of Contacts, Meetings, and other information visit them by clicking the following Norwich Engineering Society

Ipswich Engineering Society
We are pleased to promote the Ipswich Engineering Society. For details of Contacts, Meetings, and other information visit them by clicking the following Ipswich Engineering Society

Chelmsford Engineering Society
We are pleased to promote the Chelmsford Engineering Society. For details of Contacts, Meetings, and other information visit them by clicking the following Chelmsford Engineering Society

History of Davey, Paxman & Co of Colchester
Richard Carr's Paxman History Pages record some of the history of one of Colchester's best known engineering companies. Paxman was for many years the town's largest manufacturing concern and Edward Paxman, son of the founder, was Founder President of the Colchester Engineering Society. Many other Paxman people have also made major contributions to the life of the Society. Follow this link to Richard Carr's Paxman History Pages

Gilberd Society                                                                                A Gilberd Society has been formed in Colchester. This is separate from the Colchester Engineering Society but we are pleased to promote it.                                                                        
William Gilberd was born in Colchester on May 24, 1544, and died in London on November 30, 1603.  He achieved eminence as a physician, finally as President of the College of Physicians.  However, his lasting fame is based more on his achievements in physics, or natural philosophy as it was then known.  In his great work De Magnete (On the Magnet), published in 1600, he laid the foundations of the sciences of electricity, magnetism and geomagnetism.  De Magnete was a revolutionary work, in that all the results are proved by careful reasoning based on experiment.  The most far-reaching of Gilberd’s results was his proof, based on experiments with a magnetic sphere, that the earth itself is a great magnet.  The fact that a compass needle points north had been known in China since perhaps the 5th Century, and in Europe since the 12th, but it was not until the publication of De Magnete that the reason was known.

Gilberd was clearly proud of his Colchester roots and describes himself as Colcestrian on the title page of De Magnete.  Sadly nowadays even in the town of his birth few people recognise his importance as the first great experimental scientist, and therefore the first truly modern man of science.  Last year we started to redress the balance with a well-attended Town-Gown lecture in the Moot Hall, followed by a Day School in the Castle Museum.  We should now like to maintain the momentum through the William Gilberd Society, with the object of enlarging the appreciation of Gilberd’s achievements, both in Colchester and more widely.  We envisage a programme of talks, visits and discussions, together with efforts to improve public understanding of Gilberd’s place as one of the most important pioneers of modern science and engineering.

The Gilberd Society holds occasional meetings. Anyone interested should contact one of the following  

Peter Noakes 01206 872907 (pdn@essex.ac.uk) 

Ken Rickwood 01206 571917 (krr@essex.ac.uk) 

David Tilley 01255 830151 (patdavidtilley@aol.com)  



© Colchester Engineering Society 2003-2007