Colchester Castle Museum to reopen Friday 2 May 2014

Colchester Castle Museum opens its doors to the public once again on Friday 2 May 2014 after a major refit and reinterpretation of the town’s history.  The exhibition places emphasis on Colchester since the Roman times. 

The Museum’s advertisement, which appears in the April 2014 edition of the BBC History Magazine, says that visitors will have a new interactive experience using cutting edge technology.  You will be able to excavate the Doctor’s grave as well as see newly acquired exhibits including finds from the Roman Circus. 

In any reinterpretation some items will no longer be displayed.  With emphasis on the “most important Romano British collection outside London” the Essex Society for Archaeology and History has learnt that perhaps one of the best Iron Age and Bronze Age collections will not be on show. 

Doctor’s Grave

The “Doctor’s Grave”, as it has become known locally, was excavated at Stanway Hall Farm (TL 9560 2250) in 1996.  It is the site now known as Gosbecks Archaeological Park.  Alison Bennett reported the grave in ‘Archaeology in Essex’ in Volume 28 of the Third Series of the Society’s Transactions:

“Roman sites were well to the fore, with the most interesting discovery from Stanway, where further excavation of the Roman burial enclosures revealed many finds, including a gaming board with the pieces still in position.  This single find captured the imagination of the national and local press”.

Philip Crummy, for the Colchester Archaeological Trust, added that it “included a gaming board with the pieces in position, a small set of surgical instruments, a copper-alloy strainer bowl, a pottery dinner service, a Spanish amphora, a flagon, and a samian bowl”.  It dates from the AD 50s.

Roman Circus

The discovery of the Roman Circus, and visit to the site owned by the Colchester Archaeological Trust, has been reported elsewhere on ESAH160.  The Third Series of Transactions of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History, Vol. 36 p.152; Vol 37 p.158-9, Vol 38 p.172-3 and Vol 39 p. 178, 179, gave a summary of the excavations.

The following is an extract from an essay submitted for a Certificate in Local History module in spring 2013:

“In 2004 the only Roman Circus so far found in Britain was discovered on the former Garrison site about 500 metres south of the southern wall of the town.  The huge chariot racing track was capable of accommodating 7,000 spectators.  It was 400 metres long and 80 metres wide.  Early in the excavation the starting gates were found in the garden of the Sergeants’ Mess in Le Cateau Road.  Channel 4’s TV programme ‘Time Team’ subsequently located the starting gates, some of the wall, and the spina, the centre wall in the circus which acted as a barrier for chariots racing.  Efforts by the Colchester Archaeological Trust to purchase the Sergeants’ Mess for the purpose of an interpretation centre subsequently failed, but the purchase of the adjacent former Army Education Centre was successful.  The building, named Roman Circus House, opened to the public for the first time over the Heritage Weekend in September 2012.  It is hoped that the Centre will be fully operational by 2014 with the starting gate exposed and glazed over on view.  This is an exciting development in the interpretation of Colchester’s history.  Of course all history books do not mention the Circus, so its discovery illustrates the evolving nature of archaeology.”