After the Partition
Chelmsford Heritage Open Days

12 – 21 September 2025

For Heritage Open Days, the pop-up exhibition After the Partition: A Shared Cultural Heritage in Essex will be shown at the Meadows Shopping Centre in Chelmsford.

Over half a million Sikhs, Hindu’s and Muslims came to Britain because of the upheaval of Partition, the promise of economic opportunities and a safer life. This exhibition, curated by Sikh historian Simran Bance, captures seven decades of their families’ lives, exploring experiences, challenges, successes, and social change since 1947. This is a rare chance to focus on lived experiences since Partition, rather than on the experience of Partition itself, opening opportunities to explore this unique cultural context within and between communities. As time passes and memories fade, it is important for Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslim communities to capture what shaped their modern heritage for posterity, and to reflect on wider issues of migration and colonialism today.

Find out more about the project and listen to oral recordings at essexcdp.com/project/afterthepartition

Chelmsford Heritage Open Days

Heritage Open Days was established in 1984 and is a countrywide festival each September celebrating heritage in many ways. The main idea for events is to allow access to buildings which are not usually available to the public along with talks and tours about our local heritage – and every event has to be free! Each year has a theme and for 2025 it is ‘architecture’. Chelmsford Heritage Open Days has been organised by Chelmsford Civic Society since 2013