Colchester: Well, well, well

Colchester: Well, well, well
10 March 2001

Location	Colchester, Essex. On this weekend farms infected by Foot and Mouth were counted in three digits. Colchester was the first Roman town (colonia) in Britain. It was established in 43 CE after the death of Cunobelin, king of the Catuvellauni. In 60 CD Boudicca sacked the town. With its great temple to the deified emperor Claudius that was built with forced native labour Colchester was Boudicca's first target. The population of Colchester sought refuge in the temple but after a few days siege it was burnt down with everyone still in it. From Colchester Boudicca marched to Verulamium and eventually Londinium. Colchester was rebuilt and flourished until the Romans left these isles in the third century CE.

Weather	It was raining hard when I drove to Colchester but during my visit it cleared up. Temperatures were unseasonably warm with highs up to 15C.

Click on the images to see larger versions.

	The view of Colchester from the roof of the castle. The castle was built in 1076 on top of the foundations of the Roman temple. The tower belongs to the Edwardian town hall on the High Street.

I took a guided tour that took me up on the roof. This cupola does not belong to the original castle. It was built in the eighteenth century as a study. The Gray family who owned it then saw the castle as a romantic ruin in their garden and treated it accordingly.

	A look at the castle from the outside, shows that it has been decapitated. This was done by a local ironmonger who bought it in the seventeenth century. He thought that he could sell the construction material for a profit and used canons to knock down the walls. Luckily he went bankrupt before he could do more damage than this.

From the front we can see that the tower doesn't really fit in with the castle architecture. The castle has a layout that is very similar to that of the White Tower in London.

	On top of the tower in what was presumably the castle chapel, a modern chapel has been created. I quite like the stained glass.

Later when it got sunny I got this nice shot of the sunlit front of the castle. The bridge leads into the sprawling museum of Colchester. The large windows are the work of the Gray family.

	In the castle gardens the spring flowers were almost overwhelming. This little purple-striped crocus caught my eye.

When writing this page I debated with myself whether to call it Daffodil Time or something like that. Essex has an excellent climate for gardening and the daffodils were out in force in the castle gardens.

	A portrait of one daffodil with many more in the background.

This is the same picture again but cropped differently. I couldn't make up my mind which one I preferred so I included both.

	Inside the entrance of the castle museum some Roman mosaics are on show. This is the corner of one of them.

And this is the middle bit. These were usually created in workshops and then taken to the villa where the panels were put together slightly differently depending on how big the floor was.

	From a very different time, winged Victory greets the women and men who took part in WW1. The crown of bay leaves that she holds in her hand is a Roman tradition, though.

On one side of Victory's plinth stands a woman with a Roman style helmet holding up her hand for the dove of peace to land on. On the opposite side she is dressed in full armour.

	The entrance to the Castle Park is crowned by this coat of arms. Presumably they belong to the Gray family. I don't think I've seen a diver in a coat of arms before.

The river Colne flows through Colchester. There is a pretty river walk along most of it. This picture with the willow hanging over the meandering river feels very English to me.

	A swan lunges for a piece of bread thrown by a passerby.

Colchester is not as prosperous as Oxford, something that shows here and there. This doorway could have been so much prettier.

	This is the Colne where North Station Road crosses. The timber-framed buildings look picturesque but the reality is harsher - the sand sacks in front of them are there to protect from flooding.

Another part of the town, East Hill. This wellmannered architecture appeals to me.

	This is from the Dutch quarter north of the High Street. It was populated by exiled weavers during the sixteenth century.

Some people in this town take their mythology seriously. These are griffins, I believe. Two of them keep watch while a third drinks.

	Finally we come to the reasons for the title of this page. The first well I found in the park below the castle. It is covered in lichen and looks very old but I sincerely doubt that it is from Roman times.

The second well (and the only one that I didn't mirror) is to be found on East Hill. I really like the inscription above it.

	The third and last well stands in front of the Roman city wall in the northeast of town.