Chester museum opens two summer landscape exhibitions: key details

Two new exhibitions at the Grosvenor Museum in Chester will bring together art, geology and local landscape history this summer, with displays tracing everything from lead mining on Halkyn Mountain to Cheshire’s fossil record.

Catherine Taylor Parry’s Earth Stories: Plwm/Lead opens on 7 June and runs until 27 September 2026 in the museum’s Coins Gallery. Echoes of Ancient Lands and Seas: Fossils from Cheshire opens on 20 June and continues until 20 September in Gallery 2.

Lead, fossils and changing landscapes

Earth Stories: Plwm/Lead explores how objects and materials are altered by time, weathering, decay and physical force. Taylor Parry’s 2D and 3D works draw on the history of lead mining and stone extraction on Halkyn Mountain in Flintshire, using colour, texture and form to reflect the way materials change in the landscape.

The North Wales-based artist works from landscape as a starting point, with a practice shaped by the relationship between environment, human activity and the physical qualities of art materials. She holds an MA with distinction in Fine Art from Chester University and was a prize winner in the Grosvenor Museum’s 2025 Open Art Exhibition.

Cheshire’s ancient jungles, deserts and seas

Echoes of Ancient Lands and Seas looks at Cheshire’s geological history from the Carboniferous period, around 359 million years ago, to the present day. The exhibition uses fossils from the Grosvenor Museum’s collection to show how scientists identify the region’s past environments.

Visitors will see plant and fern remains linked to Carboniferous jungles around Wrexham, marine microfossils from Saltney and fossilised reptile footprints from the Wirral. The display also explains how Cheshire’s salt deposits formed and how the salt industry became part of the region’s heritage.

The exhibition is curated by Harriet Williams, a University of Liverpool PhD student and curatorial intern at the Grosvenor Museum. Artist Val Hunt has also created a horsetail fern sculpture for the display, using her established approach of working with recycled materials.

Opening times and entry

The Grosvenor Museum is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10.30am to 5pm, and Sunday from 1pm to 4pm. It is closed on Mondays, except Bank Holiday Mondays. Entry is free, with donations welcome.

Source: Cheshire West and Chester Council