Monday 25 April 2016

Colchester's Roman Circus Centre, Roman Circus Walk, Off Butt Road, CO2 7GZ

A couple of things have brought me out of my blog retirement this weekend and I have a little spare time today to crack on with a bit of Colchester PR which I think we all agree is seriously lacking!

First up is the Colchester Roman Circus, somewhere I have been meaning to go for a while. This is another hidden gem, totally unique to Colchester, and sadly, little known about. I only heard of it I spend too many hours of my day on Twitter trying to connect and engage with the area and its inhabitants. Where are the posters about it around Town? At the Station?.... This is when we need my sentry box idea at the train station. Tell visitors and locals what is here!

The Roman Circus Centre is the site of Britain's only known Roman Circus and its huge! I don't know too much about it but believe the site was discovered when building work was taking place to turn the old Army Barracks into housing (and might I say the houses in the old Barracks look VERY nice). I'd like to live there if I wasn't too lazy to move house again.

Anyhow, The Centre had a sort of Open Day on Saturday so we popped along for a snoop. It's free entry so really there is no excuse not to visit. They had bike hire, a little cafe with live music and clog dancing on top of the archaeological gubbins. Hopefully the busier and more well known they get, the more days like this they will have. It's actually a great spot for people with young kids to meet up when the weather is good. The local NCT group should really set up some coffee mornings here. Its exactly the type of place I would have loved to come to when we moved here with a baby.

The only criticism I have is that the signage is pretty poor. As with most things in Colchester you really have to seek them out (PR! PR! PR!) and we couldn't even find the entrance to get in. If you are driving don't listen to your Sat Nav if it send's you up Napier Road or you will be driving round for hours.



Old Army Vehicles parked outside the Centre.


Penny Farthing anyone?


Local Clog Dancers, 'Annies Fantasies'.


Information about the site.


Reconstruction of Starting Gates.


One of the Displays.


Model of the site, it would have been massive!

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