Story of Oliver Cromwell’s head revealed at Cromwell Museum

The new display features items kindly loaned from Sidney Sussex College at the University of Cambridge, where Cromwell’s head is buried today.

Oliver Cromwell died of natural causes on September 3, 1658 and was buried in a small private ceremony in Westminster Abbey.

Weeks later one of the most elaborate state funerals of the 1600s was carried out in his memory. With the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, Cromwell’s corpse was exhumed with two others and ceremonially hung at Tyburn in London. It was cut down, beheaded, and the severed head displayed at Westminster for two decades before being stolen.

Cromwell’s head then went on to become a tourist attraction, investment item and object of curiosity before being interred at Sidney Sussex College in 1960.

The new exhibit looks at this fascinating story and includes several rarely seen artefacts on display, including a rare banner displayed at Cromwell’s funeral, one of his death masks, an exhibition catalogue from the exhibition of his head in 1799, a portrait of the mummified head and the key to the box in which it was buried!

Stuart Orme, Curator of the Cromwell Museum says: “The grisly story of what happened to Oliver Cromwell’s corpse is one that seems to fascinate visitors and has been one of our most requested subjects for a special exhibit.

"This display includes items kindly loaned to us by the college where his head is today interred, which give a fascinating window into a story which is often so strange that you couldn’t possibly make it up!”

The Cromwell’s Head exhibit runs until Sunday, March 30 during normal museum opening hours, Tuesday to Sunday, 10am – 3.30pm (closed 24, 25, 26, 31 December and 1 January).

Admission is free of charge, although donations are encouraged. For more details on this and the museum’s upcoming programmes visit www.cromwellmuseum.org.