Introducing..........
THE ONLY KNOWN ROMAN CIRCUS IN BRITAIN
Scheduled Ancient Monument Number 36514.
In 2005, it gradually dawned on our archaeologists that the remains that they were discovering as part of an evaluation dig for a property developer prior to building works, was, in fact, a Roman circus. Understandably, this caused great excitement in the archaeology world as no other Roman circus is known in Britain. Over the months that followed, more and more of the foundations were uncovered and the true extent of the circus was discovered.
This web page introduces you to the circus, showing you press cuttings from the earliest stages of discovery, through to the current situation. Sadly, we have had to fight to protect our circus as this was a truly inconvenient discovery for the building company who had bought the land. Luckily, English Heritage saw the importance of it and swiftly made it a Scheduled Ancient Monument. This was fantastic news for Colchester! Effectively, the circus has blighted the owner's prospects for building on the site. The people of Colchester are asking for a small part of the the site to be given back to them so that they can develop the site as a visitor attraction.
In June 2009, destination Colchester, a local action group, working with other interested parties, produced a 'Shared Vision' document and presented it to Colchester borough Council for their consideration. This may be downloaded and viewed here. If you have a view on any aspect of this document, please let us know, as this is your circus and your views are important to its future.
So, as you will see, by following the various links below, all is not well for the circus.
Please join our campaign to,
protect, take into our hands and develop the site as a visitor attraction
by sending us an email to:
This used to be savethecircus@aol.com, which is now defunct.
or by telephoning 01206 240788, 01206 242228, 07714 250949.
