Colchester archaeology in the United States

On the 15th June, the Colchester Archaeological Research Team (C.A.R.T. Archaeology or ‘cartarchaeology’) posted a video in their online blog. C.A.R.T. are part of the Fairfax County Park Authority, in Fairfax County, Virginia, in the United States. C.A.R.T. are conducting an archaeological project on the site of ‘Old Colchester’, which was a Colonial port. The site is now the Old Colchester Park and Preserve at the town of Lorton, and it is bordered by a modern residential development and two modern bridges across the river, with a small marina. We have been following C.A.R.T. online for a couple of years, although they started their Old Colchester project and blog in 2010. The video which they posted on Monday was the fifth since they began to post videos about their work on the blog in May. Finds and discoveries from the site of Old Colchester range from tiny beads and a barrel spigot to a stone-lined well and building foundations.

The site of Old Colchester is on the tidal Occoquan River, near its confluence with the famous Potomac River. It is only about 12 miles south of the US capital, Washington D.C., and not far from Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington. (George Washington was one of the Founding Fathers of the US, commander-in-chief of the Continental army during the Revolutionary War and the first president of the US.) Old Colchester is about 4 miles inland and it is across the river from the town of Woodbridge! Not much of Old Colchester survives above ground, except for parts of three roads, and one building – the former Colchester Inn. One of the roads is called the ‘Old Colchester Road’. The area was explored in 1608 by Captain John Smith. By 1729, a tavern and a blacksmith had been established at the ferry crossing here, on the major north-south route of the Potomac Path, later the King’s Highway, which connected the colonies. Peter Wagener (1681-1742) graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1701 and served as a parson in Virginia, 1703-1707, and then as the parson of Stisted near Colchester in Essex from 1707. His son Peter Wagener (1717-1774) returned to Virginia in 1738, to practise law. He became Clerk of Fairfax County in 1752. The second Peter Wagener’s home on the Occoquan River was called ‘Stisted’ and he founded Old Colchester nearby in 1754 as a commercial venture. Old Colchester was a tobacco port, trading in the tobacco which was grown on the local slave plantations *.

Old Colchester should have succeeded but, for various reasons, it failed… In its heyday, it included two taverns, houses, stores, a blacksmith, a tannery, a vineyard, the premises of winemaker Morris Pound and tailor John McIntosh, and tobacco warehouses. The three streets were named Essex Street, Fairfax Street and Wine Street. In 1798, a member of the Mason family built a bridge across the river, but it was washed away in about 1807 and never replaced. Poor Old Colchester didn’t make it into the 19th century. The only surviving building is now a private house, but it was originally the Fairfax Arms and later the Colchester Inn: apparently it is one of the oldest buildings in Fairfax County. The Old Colchester Park and Preserve also includes the site of a Revolutionary War encampment. During the Revolutionary War, in 1781, the Colchester ferry was used to transport General Washington and his troops across the river on their march from Newport to Yorktown, where they defeated the British army at the Battle of Yorktown. More recently, this area included a correctional facility and a weapons facility.

The area has some big history. Gunston Hall was a mansion and plantation near Old Colchester, and it was the home of George Mason, one of two men known as the ‘Father of the United States Bill of Rights’ and another one of the Founding Fathers of the US: George Mason University is named after him. George Mason and George Washington both attended Pohick Church at Lorton, and Washington often used the Old Colchester ferry to get there. Peter Wagener’s son Peter Wagener III (1742-1798) succeeded him as Clerk of Fairfax County and used to go foxhunting with a group of men which included George Washington. Another Washington was one of the first trustees of Old Colchester, with Peter Wagener II. Peter Wagener III served in the Revolutionary War as a first lieutenant and then as a colonel.

C.A.R.T. are investigating the site of Old Colchester with the assistance of volunteers and interns. Through Peter Wagener, here in Colchester, Essex we have a direct link with Old Colchester, Virginia. It’s interesting that two archaeological units are conducting projects – almost in parallel – in two such different places which share the same name. And here, in the even older Colchester, which has existed as a town since AD 49 and survived centuries of episodes of destruction, damage and difficulty, we can reflect on the history of the many settlements which haven’t survived, including Old Colchester.

C.A.R.T. have created plans of Old Colchester at https://cartarchaeology.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/fa574-oldcolchester5.jpg and https://cartarchaeology.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/761b1-colchester3d.jpg . There is an interactive map of Old Colchester at http://fairfaxcountygis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapTour/index.html . You can follow the C.A.R.T. blog and view their new videos at https://cartarchaeology.wordpress.com/ .
PLEASE NOTE: C.A.R.T. have removed all the video posts from their blog!

The image shows a photo. of the Colchester Inn in 1959, taken by the Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record (HABS/HAER) (copyright Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, VA,30-COLCH,1-3).

* ‘… The historic town of Colchester was surveyed in 1754. The primary function of the town was tobacco inspection and exportation. However, as the town developed it served as a social, cultural, and economic locus for the region. Persons of every class from enslaved African-American and European indentured servants through the wealthiest planters and merchants would have frequented the town. Numerous archaeological investigations from 1979 through the present day have discovered aspects of this colonial town including foundations, trenches, and a well. Currently, approximately 25 percent of the historic town is located within the Old Colchester Park and Preserve …’ – from the C.A.R.T. interactive map.

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