Today, Colchester is the largest settlement found anywhere in Essex, a city which has a population of over 130,000.
Colchester is known for many things, perhaps the most salient being its rich history.
Not only did the city play a part in England’s Civil War, but a significant role in the entire history of Britain from the Roman period.
In recent years, it has begun adopting the title of ‘Britain’s First City’, and while the claim divides historians, Colchester has bags of evidence to back it up.
While not entirely perfectly preserved, strewn across Colchester are signs of the city’s former colonial rulers: the Romans, traces of their might scattered everywhere so long as you look close enough.
Sitting just around 50 minutes away from London Liverpool Street by train, Colchester has become the place for those who work in the city looking for somewhere more affordable and closer to the countryside.
But to say it is only a commuter town would do it a disservice because Colchester has become a tourist hotspot among those looking to explore Britain’s lesser-known cities.
While not the most exciting, perhaps the best-preserved Roman relic anywhere in Colchester is its Roman wall.
Thought to be the earliest and longest Roman walls in Britain, the structure was built in the period 65 to 80 AD following a mass assault by Queen Boudica against Roman rule.
In its entirety, the wall measures 2,800 metres, or 1¾ miles, in length, and stood at a hefty six metres before it was damaged.
During the Roman period, the wall had six gates punctured into it at regular intervals, and of all of these just two survive above ground today, the Balkerne Gate and Duncan’s Gate.
The former was the original main entrance to Colchester — back then known as Camulodunum — and was later upgraded to a Triumphal Arch to mark the Roman conquest of Britannia by Emperor Claudius.
Near the Balkere Gate are found the remains of an old Roman guardroom in which doormen once stood watch, protecting the city from the fearsome Celtic tribes who hated the colonial settlers.
The gate would have led to London — known as Londinium — the Romans’ first known settlement of any note alongside Colchester, which grew rapidly.
Two large archways made way for wheeled vehicles, and two small ones for pedestrians, but today, only the southern pedestrian archway and guardroom survive, accounting for less than a quarter of the original gateway.
Then there is Colchester Castle, a great medieval structure whose foundations are rooted in the Roman era. The castle’s keep is mostly intact and is the largest example of its kind anywhere in Europe due to the fact that it is built on the foundations of the Roman Temple of Claudius.
The temple is one of at least Roman-era pagan temples in Colchester and was the largest temple of its kind in Roman Britain.
Its current remains potentially represent the earliest existing Roman stonework in Britain, and they can still be seen by taking a trip to the castle vaults via guided tours which take place daily.
The castle was the greatest symbol of colonial rule to the Celtic tribes and so became the first natural target of their attack, Boudica’s army destroying it around 60 AD.
Much of the city’s Roman past was destroyed or lost to time, though one easy excavation site still holds untold Roman secrets.
Gosbecks Archaeological Park is one of the most significant Iron Age and Roman sites in Britain, a place in which excavations began in the 19th century with the discovery of a Roman temple.
Soon, an entire Roman settlement was found, and evidence of a succession of native kings.
The park includes the remains of the largest five known Roman theatres in Britain which once seated up to 5,000 people, as well as a Romano-Celtic Temple located within a large four-sided precinct, whose precinct was surrounded by a double portico measuring an astonishing mile-long.
