Walled Towns are unique inheritances from times long past and should be treasured, maintained and safeguarded from neglect, damage and destruction and passed on into perpetuity as irreplaceable 'Timestones of History'
This picture shows one of the best preserved and most complete sections of Colchester's Roman wall. This section is on the west of the town and is looking north towards what is known as Balkerne Gate. (See the Virtual Tour and Town Wall History for more information and pictures.)
This is the same section of wall but looking south.
Sadly, whilst this is the best preserved part of the entire wall (despite the encroaching vegetation), elsewhere, Colchester's Roman Wall is falling to pieces. There are signs that Colchester is finally waking up to what is happening, with repairs to one of the medieval bastions started in January 2005 and mention of further funding for other work in the pipeline.
Our 3100 metre long wall was built during the Roman occupation nearly 2000 years ago.
This web page has been put up to try and draw attention to state of our walls. Shouldn't we be making sure that one of the nation's treasures is given the protection that it needs?
To see what we mean, please scroll down through the pictures.
Roman Colchester, 2nd to 4th Century
showing the principal gates mentioned on this page
Medieval Colchester, c1500
repeating the principal Roman gate positions and adding Rye Gate (10), together with the medieval bastions.
The east wall alongside the Grey Friars area, is in a desperate condition, with the areas marked in red on the above plan.
A section of the wall in Priory Street (just 100m to the south of East Gate) was splendidly repaired in 2005, after damage caused by vehicles and vegetation. A sum of £50,000 was agreed for repairs according to the Evening Gazette of 25 March 2004 and it took until January 2005 for the work to start.
This is the repaired section in June 2005. Note the use of modern brick in the Roman wall, something that would have been done through the ages when repairs were necessary!
This is a wider view of the repaired section. What is to stop the vehicle damage from happening again? Will we never learn? Some consultant has earned a fat fee for this work, yet provision has not been made for protecting the bastion. The mind boggles!
Our Town Walls are both scheduled and listed as Grade 1. As such, they enjoy the protection of:
Please click on the logo to see what should be happening to protect our walls and then ask yourself why it hasn't been working properly for us.
This is a section of the east wall (just 100m north of East Gate) freshly fallen off the Roman wall in July 2003. Perfect Roman tiles and mortar, with plenty more where that came from.
....and here it still lies in March 2004, with the ever crumbling wall behind it. Now it is hidden under the undergrowth that has been allowed to encroach on the wall. Too costly an exercise to keep it in good order?
In a newspaper article of 18th March 2004, Colchester Borough Council's representative denied that there was any neglect of our walls. Click here for the story.
This section of the wall forms the back garden perimeter boundary for Victorian built housing in Roman Road. Various examples of shoring-up have been used over the years, all of which is now in very poor condition - as the following pictures show.
What we can see here is the inside of the inner face of the wall, perhaps only 600mm thick. The outer face, some 1800mm thickness, has either fallen away with decay or has been robbed out. An archaeological survey is needed urgently to see what has survived below ground, so that it can be recorded, stabilised and therefore protected for future generations.
The problem is that, if our very own council denies that there is any neglect, some sort of external enforcement order is going to be needed.
Behind these brick buttresses, the Roman wall is crumbling away and spilling out onto the ground.
This whole section of wall is disappearing fast due to a lack of care.
Colchester Borough Council says that there is no neglect!
On the north wall we have a postern gate, known as Duncan's Gate. It is associated with some amazingly preserved drainage channel structures and features, together with external defensive ditch remains. Clear evidence can be seen of how the main arch of the gate simply keeled over (presumably in antiquity) and fell to the ground - where it has lain ever since.
Ignore the steps that somebody put there for some strange reason.
Duncan's Gate on the north face of the wall has vegetation all over it with considerable root damage to the masonry taking place (as of July 2003).
In January 2003, the Essex County Standard reported on the poor condition of Colchester's Roman town wall. In February the Standard printed an article by journalist Robert Mead featuring the views of former Colchester Museum curator Mark Davies and Chairman of the Colchester Archaeological Group. In April 2003, Robert Mead visited Chester to discover how they treated their walls and he suggested that we had much to learn from their attitude, both to preservation of their history and the ability to interpret and exploit their heritage for the public good.
On April 18th, the Standard reported that Colchester Borough Council had published, `Colchester, A Place For People', which listed twenty-seven priorities for a new `cultural strategy'; only three of which were directly related to heritage: None of these involved the town wall: Keith Nicholson, head of Leisure Services, said there was no money to repair the wall and responding to criticism from local historian Andrew Phillips, stated: "I would like to challenge those same people to say exactly what we need to make more of our Roman wall."
The Colchester wall is arguably the most important ancient monument in Essex. It defined the town and all subsequent activities in the town have been conditioned by its existence. It remains a living part of the borough's heritage and we should be proud of it. Respecting one's past and maintaining and re-interpreting its tangible reminders is not an indication of backward thinking. In Chester one finds a vibrant modern city, which takes pride in its history, lives fully in the present and relishes its future.
In Colchester we have no programme of maintenance and council officers regard the wall as a problem. The wall is not a problem, it is a unique and precious asset, the oldest town wall still standing in Britain. For the council to avoid taking responsibility for the wall's upkeep, particularly behind Roman Road, by using the old chestnut of `ownership issues' is mere sophistry. It ignores the resolution passed in the early 1970's when the Council agreed to maintain the entire wall.
(An extract from a document produced in August 2003 by the Colchester Town Watch in response to the St Botolph's regeneration plans.)
'To protect archaeological sites for future generations, the most valuable of them may be scheduled. Scheduling is the system which gives legal protection to nationally important archaeological sites in England.
'Scheduling' is shorthand for the process through which nationally important sites and monuments are given legal protection by being placed on a list, or 'schedule'. English Heritage takes the lead in identifying sites in England which should be placed on the schedule by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.
Scheduling is the only legal protection specifically for archaeological sites.
Scheduling is applied only to sites of national importance, and even then only if it is the best means of protection. Only deliberately created structures, features and remains can be scheduled.
Buildings and standing structures of historic interest, especially if they are or can be made usable, are generally best protected by listing, where the emphasis is on continuing active use.
English Heritage is the main national body with the task of identifying and protecting this inheritance, which we do by recommending 'listing' or earmarking the most important buildings. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport make the final decisions on listing.
The word 'listing' is a short-hand term used to describe one of a number of legal procedures which help English Heritage to protect the best of our architectural heritage. When buildings are listed they are placed on statutory lists of buildings of 'special architectural or historic interest' compiled by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.
Listed buildings are graded to show their relative importance:
