Thursday 20th January 2011

We are pleased to report that we have received a very positive thumbs up from our donors for our proposal to purchase the former Army Education Centre building rather than the Sergeants' Mess. (See the post below for details.) This is great news since it means we can now push ahead with our plan to set up an interpretation centre focussed on the gates and the west end of the Roman circus.

As promised, we contacted as many of the donors as we could to explain the proposed change in plan and to offer a refund to anybody who was not in favour. Here is summary of the outcome.

We had 1001 donations and raised a total of about £242,000 including pledges. We sent 635 letters and 166 emails. We received 72 positive responses of support covering about £90,000 worth of donations. We were very surprised and delighted that 17 people not only sent letters of encouragement but included unsolicited donations to the total value of £555 plus gift aid. (Many thanks indeed if you are one those 17 people.) Only six people wanted a refund. This meant we returned a total of £519 including the gift aid element. Two of the six said they were not against the scheme but needed the money. The others gave no reason. Our letter to the donors did say that no response was necessary if they supported the change of plan so we are taking the overall response as a thumbs up.

We were unable to contact about a quarter of the donors because either their contact details are insufficient or they were anonymous (mainly online donations). We will apply to the Charity Commission to authorise switching these donations to the new plan. Our deadline for applying for a refund was January 14th 2011. However, there still is time to ask for one - at least for a little while - but we hope you won't because we have a lot to do and funds will be short.

What next? We need to apply for planning consent for change of use of the Education Centre building. Hopefully this will be submitted within the next month. Just as critical is the mortgage which CAT will need to help pay for its share of the building and its repairs. Our application is being processed and we expect to hear the outcome within the next few weeks. The planning application will take eight weeks to be processed by the local authority. If all goes well and we get the mortgage, we should be able to move in to the building during the summer. At the same time, we hope to be able to start work on the garden of the Sergeants' Mess as the first stage in the work needed to get the circus interpretation centre up and going.

Thursday 23rd December 2010

We are contacting as many of our donors as possible by letter or email to ask if they would agree to their donation being used to buy, not the Sergeants’ Mess as originally planned, but the building immediately next to it known as the former Army Education Centre building. Donors are being offered a refund if they do want to support this change of direction in our plans. We have done this because we have had to give up our bid to buy the Sergeants’ Mess. We tried very hard to make the project work but in the end the problems were too intractable for us to overcome.

However, the great news is that the Education Centre building will do the job, and it will do it very well. With the Education Centre building, we will still have a permanent focal point for interpretation next to the site of the Roman circus. And consequently the building will help ensure that the circus is developed in a significant and meaningful way over the years to come as a major, nationally-important monument for the town.

The Education Centre building will provide a large, well-proportioned display area immediately overlooking the site of the circus. The building will contain the same facilities we planned for the Sergeants’ Mess, including a small tearoom, a shop, a kitchen, toilets, and a reception room. Crucially we will still be able to set up and run exactly the same display in the garden of the Sergeants’ Mess that we always intended. Ownership of the garden will not come with the purchase of the Education Centre building but instead it would be managed by the Trust by virtue of a 125-year lease held by Colchester Borough Council. Everything else would be exactly the same except for a new gate in the railings opposite the Education Centre building which visitors would use to enter and leave the garden.

Another point in its favour is that the Education Centre building can be acquired relatively quickly and at much less cost than the Sergeants’ Mess. Its acquisition would allow us to concentrate in the near future on fund-raising for the all-important interpretive displays in the garden and indoor interpretation centre.

Please download our letter to our donors here if you want to find out more about the project.

We don’t have contact details for all of our donors. For those who donated collectively such as at Colchester United football ground, we are writing to the host organisations concerned to ask if they would consent on their behalf. Any donor who has not heard from us by the end of December 2010 and would like a refund is asked to contact us by January 15th 2011.

Saturday 16th October - Thursday 11th November

Think you know your Colchester? Then test your knowledge at our new exhibition in the public library (upstairs by the cafe) in Trinity Street, Colchester.

But the exhibition is largely about the Roman circus. The purpose of the exhibition is to thank publically everybody who has helped with the appeal and to provide an update on progress. There is a long list of all the major donors (individuals and organisations) and there is an overview of the current plans for the circus and the Sergeants' Mess including the current planning application. Also included are the results and a selection of entries from our two competitions for school children: 'Design a Roman circus chariot' and 'Write a mini saga' (fifty words maximum) about a day at the races. On view too are some excellent compilations by children at Gosbecks Primary School about the Roman circus and the appeal. (Many thanks to all who entered and to the staff who made it possible!)

And there's more. The series of sixteen watercolour reconstructions by Peter Froste are on show too. These chart the development of the Roman town from its origin as a Roman legionary fortress to its reincarnation as a Norman town. The paintings were commissioned for the book City of Victory and have been updated specially for the exhibition to include the Roman circus which hadn't been discovered when the book was written.

Finally there are the results of the photographic competition which challenged photographers to come up with interesting and unusual views of Colchester today.

Somebody from the Trust will be in attendance on Saturday mornings and at other times (sorry but randomly so) to answer questions, discuss the circus, and sell publications. The cafe is right next to the exhibition so you can pop in, browse the displays, and have a coffee when are at it.

The planning application lodged with the Borough Council in August is due to be determined before the end of November. Planning permission is being sought for mixed use for the building: about one quarter for an interpretation centre plus front garden, another quarter or so for offices for the Colchester Archaeological Trust and the remainder for private housing in the form of one town house and four flats. This is a major step forward in the project and consent is eagerly anticipated.

This whole project has been very problematic and - nothing new here (!) - there is another problem. Two private partners had been found for the housing but one of them dropped out leaving a shortfall in our funding package of about £200,000 to cover the purchase price of the building and the basic refurbishment of its shell and services. Consequently we now need a new private partner and we are actively seeking one. If you are interested or know of anybody who might be, please email the cat website (catuk.org) addressed to info.

***** hot news! *****

TOTAL RAISED SINCE EARLY DECEMBER: MADE IT! £200,000!

Please visit the appeal website: Roman Circus Appeal

For ways to donate, see Save Britain's only known chariot racing track below.

Plans have been revealed for a three-dimensional display in the garden of the Sergeants' Mess using special viewing screens to help recreate what the gates would have looked like. The hope is to permanently expose under cover the central part of the gates and construct stumps of the correct size showing the positions of the various parts of the rest of the gates. Visitors could look through two screens, one inside the circus, the other outside, to get a good idea of what the original building would have looked like. The garden would be professionally designed and planted so to create a pleasant and attractive place to visit and linger. The interpretation centre would include a tearoom, the profits from which would be used to make the facility free. The intention is to create an important tourist venue which would be of economic value to the town and provide Colcestrians and visitors alike with an attractive facility where they could sit down, enjoy the surroundings and buy a cup of coffee to help towards the running costs. The interpretation centre and the garden would act as the gateway to the circus itself, where low grassed mounds coupled with surface marking would enable visitors to walk around the footprint of the building and grasp the enormity of its size.

Taylor Wimpey has extended the deadline for the purchase of the Sergeants' Mess to the end of February 2010. The appeal for £220,000 was launched early in December 2009 and has been very well received. In about seven weeks, a total of over £120,000 has been raised. The local community is backing the appeal in an extraordinary way with offers of practical help from many organisations including the Mercury Theatre, FirstSite NewSite, Colchester United Football Club, Destination Colchester, Colchester 2020 and many others. The local media have also been extremely supportive with the Colchester Gazette declaring itself the Circus Champion and giving the campaign a great deal of coverage. Various celebrities have declared their support for the campaign with interest and involvement now beginning to spread to local schools. (See romancircus.org for details.) We firmly believe this is a very worthwhile project which will benefit not only the local community but the town financially through increased tourism. If the bid to buy the Sergeants’ Mess is unsuccessful, the building will be sold off for conversion into eight private houses.



From the Essex County Standard, Friday 18th December 2009

by Wendy Brading (wendy.brading@nqe.com)

CELEBRITIES are backing a bid to buy a piece of Colchester’s Roman heritage. A consortium, made up of Colchester Archaeological Trust and community group Destination Colchester, is trying to raise £200,000 to buy the Sergeants' Mess. The listed buildings gardens house the starting gates to the Roman chariot racing circus - the only one found in Britain.
The consortium hopes to buy the building to use it to create a visitor centre and ensure the starting gates’ site is saved forever. Now celebrities and history lovers have offered their support. Comedian and TV presenter Tony Robinson and architectural historian and television presenter Dan Cruickshank have agreed to be patrons of the Save the Roman Circus charity.

Mr Robinson saw the remains of the circus first hand when he presented a special edition of TV’s Time Team. He said: “We have to find the money to save the Roman circus. Please donate.”

Prominent historian, writer and TV presenter Mr Cruickshank. also gave his backing to the campaign. He said: “I am totally behind this campaign. It is so important. I will do anything I can to save the Roman circus.” Mr Cruickshank is due to visit Colchester next month to look at the site and meet historians and fund-raisers.
The group also has the support of comedian and presenter Griff Rhys Jones, who unveiled the mosaic at Abbeyfields last year.
So far, more than £30,000 has been raised through donations. The building will cost £750,000 in total and £530,000 has been sourced. Two potential partners want to buy part of the building and the archaeological trust is to get a mortgage. If the sale is completed, it will move from its base in Lexden Road, Colchester, to the Sergeants' Mess at the former Cavalry Barracks.
A grant from the county council is also included and fund-raisers have until the end of January to raise the remaining money.
Wendy Bailey, chairman of Destination Colchester, said support had flooded in from around the world, with 500 names on the Facebook page. But she said more money was needed. Fund-raising events in the pipeline include a reception at the Mayor’s Parlour, and Mrs Bailey said she would also like to recreate Claudius’ entrance to Colchester with elephants in an effort to raise awareness of the campaign.
Isobel Merry, head of the fund-raising team, appealed to Colcestrians to give their backing. She said: “If everyone in Colchester who buys a lottery ticket could give £1 instead to the appeal for the rest of the year, it would be great.”

A DONATION of £5,000 has been made by Colchester Council leader Anne Turrell from the leader’s fund. Mrs Turrell said: “We don’t have the money to save it outright, but we are 100 per cent behind it and want to support it in any way we can.”
Lyn Barton, the council’s portfolio holder for planning, regeneration and sustainability, said the Liberal Democrat group had also donated £1,000, and she added the council had been active in trying to do what it could to save the circus.
She said: “We can`t buy the Sergeants' Mess, we don’t have the funds.
“But where we can, we have acquired pieces of land around the circus, as they are important for saving the circus for the future.”

THE appeal to buy the Sergeants' Mess has won support from a national archaeological body. The Association of Roman Archaeology described the campaign as “probably the most exciting venture in the conservation of our national heritage.”
The association appeals to developers Taylor Wimpey for more time. In a letter to the County Standard, Bryn Walters, director of the Association for Roman Archaeology, writes: “As this is without question one of the most important Roman sites ever found in Britain, the maximum preservation and presentation of the monument has to be grasped.
“If it is lost, it will scar the reputation of Colchester and probably the developers nationally.” Mr Walters described the appeal as a “unique opportunity to enhance the footprint of the circus”. He ends: “Please appeal for more time!”
Read the complete letter here.

WE URGENTLY NEED in excess of £200,000 to buy the former Sergeants' Mess and secure the site of the starting gates of the only known Roman circus in Britain. We have only until the end of January to purchase the building as part of an overall plan to turn the circus into a major feature of Britain's first Roman town.

The aim of the appeal is to create a free public facility with informative displays, a cafe, and a well laid-out and attractive garden featuring the remains of the eight starting gates of the circus. We want to create a quiet and pleasant space in which Colcestrians and visitors alike can relax and explore a unique aspect of Colchester's Roman past. We are working with the Council to make this part of a longer-term plan which will involve the display of the complete footprint of the circus itself. The circus remains are too vulnerable to expose on any scale but the main features of the building would be highlighted in a way which would give visitors a clear idea of the scale and plan of this huge and exciting monument.

The asking price for the whole building and its garden is £750,000. On top of this, there is also about £100,000 worth of damage caused by vandals sometime ago. This makes for a very substantial sum so we are treating the Mess as a number different units each of which will need to be purchased separately by different parties. The purpose of the appeal is to raise enough money to pay for the garden and what would be the public part of the building where there would be various interpretative displays and a cafe. The other parts of the building are to be bought by the Colchester Archaeological Trust for its offices and at least one private business.

If we not successful with this appeal, the Sergeants' Mess will be sold for conversion into houses, the garden will become a private space, and the possibility of developing the circus as a cohesive and visitable monument will be lost. If you care about Colchester's nationally-important heritage, please donate now.

A very substantial sum needs to be raised in a short period of time so please give generously! We have already had many donations of a thousand pounds. Two hundred of those and we would almost be there!

If you would rather send a cheque, then please download and complete a gift aid declaration if you are a UK tax payer and send it along with a cheque made out to the Colchester Archaeological Trust to Colchester Archaeological Trust (circus appeal), 12 Lexden Road, Colchester, CO3 3NF. Please remember to include your name and address on the back of the cheque.

The appeal has been launched by destination Colchester and the Colchester Archaeological Trust.

For more information, please visit the Roman Circus Appeal website.

Part of the site of Britain’s only known Roman chariot-racing track is up for sale. House builders Taylor Wimpey have offered a Colchester-based community consortium six months to raise the funds to buy a Victorian building known as the Sergeants’ Mess, which includes in its front garden the site of all eight of the circus’s starting gates. The consortium is trying to put together a financial package to raise the funds which would depend on one or more private buyers purchasing one half of the building. The other half would be used as a visitor centre for the circus and a permanent base for the Colchester Archaeological Trust.

The Roman circus was discovered by the Archaeological Trust in late 2004 during archaeological investigations for Taylor Wimpey as part of the works for the redevelopment of Colchester Garrison. Built in the 2nd century AD, the circus is the only one of its kind known in Britain, the nearest example being 800 miles away in southern France. The giant building was a quarter of a mile long and capable of accommodating about 15,000 spectators. Part of the site of the circus was to be built over, but its discovery resulted in Taylor Wimpey changing their plans so as to leave the remains undisturbed. The site was later given formal protection when the entire footprint of the Roman building was designated a scheduled ancient monument by English Heritage.

The Colchester Borough Council is working on a scheme to mark out and provide public interpretation for the whole circuit of the circus with the finds from the building to be on display in Colchester Castle Museum. An arrangement focused on the gates as envisaged by the consortium would be welcomed by the Borough Council, because it would help achieve an integrated interpretative treatment around the whole circuit of the circus and it would provide an imaginative interpretation for what had been a key area of the Roman building.

The former Sergeants’ Mess is a fine listed building. It was built c 1875 as the officers’ quarters of the Royal Artillery Barracks. Two of the original six barracks are still standing and one has recently been refurbished for housing. The western half of the former Sergeants' Mess is on offer plus half the front garden which contains the remains of the starting gates. Although the aim of the scheme is to ensure permanent public access to the garden, the occupants of the western half of the building would have full and private use of the garden when it was not open to the public. The consortium consists of Destination Colchester and the Colchester Archaeological Trust.

The following article appeared in this week's (18th September 2009) Essex County Standard.

Wind turbine plan for chariot circus

by Wendy Brading

WIND turbines could be used to mark out the footprint of Colchester’s famous chariot circus. That is the suggestion of Jeremy Lucas, Essex County Council’s Cabinet member for heritage, culture and the arts.

Mr Lucas, of Inglis Road, Colchester, said he was right behind moves to mark out the site of the chariot arena.

But he suggested it could be done by using wind turbines — which he said had a dual benefit. Mr Lucas said by installing vertical axis wind turbines, it would be possible to give people an impression of the original height of the stadium. He said they could also be used to generate energy — perhaps for the Colchester Archaeological Trust if it was successful in securing the nearby Sergeants’ Mess as its base.

The arena would have been about six metres tall with the turning posts being about seven metres.

Mr Lucas said: “I am pleased to offer my support to the Colchester Archaeological Trust’s proposal for a visual marker on the site of the circus footprint. “Each such turbine will generate enough energy for up to five homes. “The addition of these markers could, therefore, be both sustainable and, over a period, self-financing. “Furthermore, if as many of us hope, the bid to move the Trust to the on-site former Sergeants’ Mess building is successful, its energy could perhaps be supplied by the wind turbines which would be on the site.”

A wind turbine is already installed at the Essex energy village on the Garrison site. Mr Lucas added: “I think people would be impressed to see the site of the chariot circus. “Something which is sustainable and energy producing can also sometimes encourage grants from the Government.”

The circus’ starting gates lie under the Sergeants’ Mess gardens. The trust launched a nationwide appeal for a partner to buy the building earlier this year. It hopes to use one half of the Victorian listed building as its base and an interpretation centre for the Roman circus, with private developers taking the other half.

A proposal was unveiled last week to mark out the footprint of the circus with an earth mound. The suggestion is part of a long-term strategy, building on the management plan for the circus which has been drawn up by Colchester Council curator Philip Wise, and the Colchester museum service.

A £l million bid by the council for Heritage Lottery Funding for an intrepretation centre was rejected earlier this year.

The circus, which dates back to 2nd century AD, is the only chariot racing circuit found in Britain. But five years after it was first discovered, there is nothing to identify its location.

The most significant of Colchester's buildings - well over three hundred in number - are protected by being 'listed'. As is recognised in central government guidelines (PPG 15), there are also buildings which do not appear in the official lists but are of local architectural or historical significance. The guidelines state that local authorities can adopt their own 'local list' of such buildings and draw up suitable policies in their local plans to give this particular group some protection. Over the years, many local authorities across England and Wales have adopted lists of this kind or are in the course of doing so, and Colchester intends to do the same.

A group of specialists who are interested in the buildings of Colchester and have a good working knowledge of them came together and offered to draw up a draft 'local list' for Colchester on a purely voluntary basis which they would present to the Borough Council for its consideration. The list would be limited to the built-up area of Colchester. The Council warmly welcomed the proposal with the result that work is to start on the compilation of the list within the next few weeks.

The adoption of a local list by the Council will represent an important statement to the effect that the Council recognises that the town's built heritage plays a key role in defining and shaping modern Colchester and needs to be safeguarded for the people of Colchester.

To find out more about the project and to check out progress, please visit the project website at http://www.colchesterhistoricbuildingsforum.org.uk

The online library of reports and publications about archaeological work in Colchester (http://cat.essex.ac.uk) continues to grow as more reports are uploaded. Visit the site and you can download for free various offerings including the first twenty editions of The Colchester Archaeologist (for the years 1987-2006), seven of the twelve published volumes of the Colchester Archaeological Reports (the rest to follow), and about 450 archive reports covering fieldwork over the last fifteen years or so.

The website of the Friends of the Colchester Archaeological Trust has been given a new home and a new look. You can find it at http://friendsofcat.org.uk/.

Issue 22 of the Trust's annual magazine, The Colchester Archaeologist, was published today (June 24th 2009). Subjects featured include the Roman wooden paddle found during the latest investigations at the Colchester Institute, the startling possibility that Julius Caesar captured Iron Age Colchester, and the surviving world of William Wire, Colchester's best known Victorian archaeologist. If you would like a copy, please consider joining the Friends of CAT (http://friendsofcat.org.uk/why-join/) because Friends are each sent a copy of the latest edition of The Colchester Archeologist as part of their membership. Otherwise you will need to visit Colchester where you should be able to buy a copy from any of the following outlets: Waterstones, Red Lion Books, Smiths, Colchester Castle Museum, the Tourist Information Centre, and Guntons in Crouch Street. For more information about the contents, see http://catuk.org/doku.php?id=publications:magazine.