Britain’s Oldest Recorded Town
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Author: Britney B.
Released 15 August 2003
Colchester Castle
Located 54 miles east of London, Colchester in Essex is Britain's oldest recorded town. Documented since it was a Celtic stronghold, archaeological evidence shows a settlement existed here 3,000 years ago.
Today most of Colchester town centre lies within the ancient boundaries of Camulodunum. The Borough of Colchester (125 square miles, population 160,000) stretches from beautiful Dedham Vale and Constable country in the north east to the yachting and wildlife havens of Mersea Island and the River Colne estuary to the south.
Colchester was founded on the River Colne, and if history had turned out differently it could have been the capital of England instead of London. Indeed, at the time of Queen Boudica in AD60, Camulodunum was the capital. Boudica, until recently often referred to as Boadicea, led a local tribe called the Iceni. When the Romans invaded Britain in AD43 they made the capture of Camulodunum one of their main priorities. They quickly subdued the local defenders and built a fortress at the settlement. By AD49 the Romans mistakenly thought they had nothing to fear from the local tribes and the fortress became a civilian settlement, populated mainly by retired soldiers and their families. It was named Colonia Claudia in honour of the Emperor, the first capital of the Roman Province Britannia.
In AD54 Claudius died and the Romans built the Temple of Claudius to worship his memory. However they made the mistake of heavily taxing the local population, using many as slaves in order to build the monument, and then forcing them to worship there. This made the temple an object of great hatred amongst the local people and a symbol of the hate they felt for Rome. When in AD60 Prasutagus, the Iceni king, died without a son to succeed him, the Romans refused to recognize Queen Boudica and his daughters as heirs and instead assaulted the women. This was to ignite a revolt. Boudica and the Iceni formed an alliance with another tribe, the Trinovantes, and attacked the now civilian town of Camulodunum. The colonial residents took refuge in the last remaining large substantial building, unfortunately for them the despised Temple of Claudius. Here they met their doom and were violently tortured and slaughtered, and the temple was burnt to the ground. Boudica and her army moved on to destroy the Roman towns of St. Albans and London before she became over-confident and was defeated. The Romans returned to Camulodunum and this time built a defensive wall around the town of which about two-thirds can still be seen today. The Roman rule was to last for over 400 more years.
Little is known about Saxon Colchester, and from remaining records it appears there was very little settlement in the area during this period though the Saxons made it a stronghold, called Colneceaster, until the Norman invasion of 1066. The original Norman keep was constructed over the massive vaults of the ruined Temple of Claudius and was the largest castle keep ever built by the Normans. It was constructed between 1076 and 1125 reusing brick and tile from the ruined Roman town. The photo shows the castle as it might have looked on completion. Much of the original keep still stands today.
Colchester Castle, Largest Norman Keep in Europe
Photograph by Britney B.
In 1189 Colchester gained its first Royal Charter from Richard I, giving the town the right of local government. During the Middle Ages it was a thriving port, and during the 16th century Flemish Protestants settled there establishing textile trades.
Unusually, the castle does not seem to have experienced much action throughout history, with the exception of a brief period during the reign of King John. The castle was held for three months by a French garrison who had been assisting the English Barons in their struggle with the King in 1216, leading up to the signing of the Magna Carta. Eventually the castle was repossessed by the Crown.
During the English civil war, Colchester fell to the Parliamentarians after an 11-week siege. Matthew Hopkins, known as the Witchfinder General, was one of the most notorious figures to emerge from the 17th Century. His headquarters were in Colchester and in two years, from 1644, he was responsible for the deaths of at least 300 people, all supposedly witches.
In 1629 the castle was sold by the Crown to a local businessman. His intention was to demolish the whole building and sell off the raw materials to local builders but, having removed the upper two storeys, the project proved unprofitable and the destruction ceased. In 1727 the castle was purchased as a wedding gift for a local man, Charles Gray, who later became a Member of Parliament for Colchester. He set about restoring the castle and it was opened to the public in 1860 as a museum. Further restoration took place in the 1930s after the local council had acquired the building and grounds, and in 1983 an extensive building project began to stabilize the old castle keep. Work was completed in 1992 and is now home to the Colchester and Essex Museum.
During the Second World War the garrison town of Colchester was under serious threat from the Nazis and was bombed on a number of occasions. The town was on the main defence line, should the Nazis have had attacked via the Essex coast. Today Colchester is still a garrison town and soldiers stationed here were called on to fight in the recent Gulf War.
Today Colchester is a fascinating town with a wealth of history and an impressive castle in the town centre, neatly contained in a pretty Victorian park. Much evidence from previous settlements still remains and recent archaeological finds have revealed more about Colchester's past and the people who once inhabited the area. Most of the finds from recent years can be found at the Castle Museum, so if you’re ever in the area do stop by to sample the delights of Britain’s oldest recorded town.