Colchester Walls and Gates Walk

Today I was in Colchester for the day while William had some motorcycle training. I don't think I'd ever been in the city before except when passing through on the train to and from London. While there I did this short walk around the ancient city walls and gates.

I found a description of the walk on the Visit Colchester website here and printed out the leaflet for it before leaving home. You can find the leaflet here.  This is the map from it.

It is about 2 miles long and took me just over an hour, stopping to read the excellent information boards along the way.  A lot of the narrative below is from the leaflet and information boards.

Here are a few of my photos.

I parked at the Britannia Car Park (£4 for all day) next to the ruins of St. Botolph's Priory.

The priory of St Julian and St Botolph was founded in 1103. The dedication to St Botolph, an East Anglian abbot who died in 680, indicates a Saxon origin for the community. 

I headed for the Castle Park first.

Colchester's equivalent of our Abbey Gardens in Bury St. Edmunds, it has lovely grounds and flower displays.

I was too early for the Tourist Information centre to be open... and the café in the park.

After a coffee elsewhere, I started my tour of the walls at the 'Jumbo' water tower, the largest remaining Victorian water tower in England.

It is just by Balkerne Gate and the Hole in the Wall pub.

Balkerne gate is the largest surviving town gateway from Roman times in Britain. Originally, it would have been the gate for the main road leading towards London. Around AD300 the outer defensive ditch 

was extended across the London road, blocking the gate, perhaps because it was seen as a weak point in the town's defences. Today, only the southern pedestrian archway and guardroom survive. 

I walked downhill along the walls.

The Romans constructed the town wall at Colchester to defend the inhabitants against attack and as a statement of their power. The very significant investment in resources required to build the wall indicated that the Romans were here to stay. At an early stage, the Romans must have realised that what is now Essex has no good quality building stone. The wall was therefore constructed of fired clay bricks, flint and septaria, a brittle, easily fractured stone collected from the Essex coast. 

I rounded the North-West corner and came to North Gate. It provided access to the river Colne and the Northam suburbs of Colchester. The original Roman design is thought to have been a single archway with an overhead walkway. North Gate remained in use for many centuries and was only demolished in 1823. 

I walked along the quiet back street of Northgate Street.

Passing the site of  Rye Gate, the path continued along the side of the Castle Park...

... to Duncan's Gate. It is named after Dr PM Duncan who led one of the earliest archaeological excavations in Colchester here in 1853. As well as the remains of the single entrance, you can also see some fallen masonry which was part of the archway over the gate. This gate was conserved and left visible following further excavations in the 1920s. 

I reached the North-East corner of the walls....

...and followed the walls south to East Gate.

East Gate was built in the Roman period to provide access to the town's port on the river Colne. The 

gate was rebuilt in the medieval period but was badly damaged in the Siege of Colchester in 1648 and 

collapsed three years later.  Nothing remains of it now.

I followed Priory Street along the outside of the wall.

St. Botolph's Gate used to be here.

St Botolph's Gate was originally a Roman gate used to reach the cemeteries outside the town wall. It was also on the processional route between the Temple of Claudius and the Circus, or chariot-racing track. The gate was demolished in 1814. 

The route now went along the attractive Short Wyre Street and Eld Lane towards the site of Scheregate.

I passed the impressive Baptist Church...

...and well-stocked flower tubs.

Scheregate was built in the medieval period. It takes its unusual name from the Anglo-Saxon word  'sceard', meaning a gap or notch, as it gave townspeople a short cut through the town wall to St John's Abbey to the south. As in the medieval period the gateway still has shops to either side. 

I spotted this plaque. 

And these are the former almshouses, now shops.

Passing the site of Headgate, which was demolished by 1766, I turned north again to reach St. Mary's Steps.

St Mary's Steps were created in the 15th century when a Roman drain was enlarged to create a small pedestrian gate or postern. Nearby is the base of an internal rectangular tower of Roman date. The name of the gate comes from the nearby St Mary at the Walls Church, now the Colchester Arts Centre. 

And here I was back at the Water Tower, the start of my tour.

You can see more of my photos from my lovely day out in Colchester here on Flickr.