News

                      ‘The greatest Roman archaeological discovery in Britain deserves to be a national tourist destination’ – from the Essex County Standard web-site, at www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/14936960._The_greatest_Roman_archaeological_discovery_in_Britain (30th November 2016) . The Colchester Roman circus visitor centre, site and tea room are now OPEN for the summer (27th March-29th September 2018). * The summer opening hours are 11.00am-4.00pm, Tuesday-Saturday. * The visitor centre, site and tea room are wheelchair-/pushchair-accessible. * We provide free visitor car-parking spaces. * Admission is free. *** Please see our timetable of guided tours (two every Saturday throughout the [read more…]

            . The Trust is delighted to announce that ‘Reconstructing Colchester’s past’, our archaeological art exhibition of the work of Peter Froste, has now been extended until the 30th June. We opened the exhibition on the 27th March ’18, on the same day that we re-opened the Colchester Roman circus visitor centre for the summer season. The art exhibition was scheduled to run until the 28th April but, due to its success and the very positive response of our visitors, we have decided to extend it until the 30th June. The exhibition includes Peter’s design [read more…]

                        Our guided tours of the Colchester Roman circus site and visitor centre resume on Saturday 31st March. The guided tours take place on every Saturday from the 31st March until the 29th September, at 12 noon (till 1.00 pm) and at 1.00 pm (till 2.00 pm) – please see timetable below. Please meet at the Roman circus model inside the visitor centre. You can check the details in the calendar on the home page of this web-site. Our guides are all trained volunteers and they are Dinah, Sam, [read more…]

  Colchester Roman circus visitor centre re-opening! Hurrah! The Trust is delighted to say that the Colchester Roman circus visitor centre will re-open for the summer on Tuesday 27th March ’18. It’s your first chance to see our newest display, the scale model of Roman Colchester and the Roman circus, while it is being created…                                     Special archaeological art exhibition ‘Reconstructing Colchester’s past’, a special archaeological art exhibition of Peter Froste’s artworks, will also open to the public on the 27th March. We ask [read more…]

On Saturday 17th February ’18, the Friends of the Colchester Archaeological Trust (FCAT) will be hosting a big ‘tea and talks’ event at Lion Walk Congregational Church in Colchester. This is a long-established and popular annual event. Trust archaeologists will present brief illustrated talks on some of our recent projects (from 2017), followed by tea/coffee and home-made cakes, when the archaeologists will mingle and chat! This year, the illustrated talks will be as follows: *** Trust pottery specialist Steve Benfield will discuss the very interesting Neolithic pottery (‘Fengate ware’) from a site at Frating near Colchester. ‘Fengate ware’ is thought [read more…]

. Happy new year from the Colchester Archaeological Trust at the site of the Roman circus in Colchester, in the UK. We send everyone our best wishes for the new year, but especially to all our clients and professional partners, to all our visitors and customers at the Roman circus visitor centre and tea room, to all our great volunteers, to all our followers on Twitter and Facebook, and to all our visitors to this web-site and our blog. The Trust has had a great year and we thank everyone for your support in 2017. We look forward to working [read more…]

Today (25th December) – Christmas Day – is considered to be the first day of Christmas. Christmas or Christmas-tide lasts for twelve days and extends from the 25th December to the 5th January. ‘The twelve days of Christmas’ is a well-known traditional carol about the gifts of Christmas, full of Christian religious symbolism. We hope you enjoy our small Christmas gift to you – our very own attempt at ‘The twelve (archaeological) days of Christmas’! The full text of one version of the carol is given below.*     All of these artefacts are from Colchester. The image for day 1 [read more…]