fab. new fencing at the Roman circus centre!

New fencing is currently being installed at the Roman circus centre and we expect it to be completed tomorrow (31st May). It’s looking good!

The new fencing is in a classic (and classy) park-railings style, made of steel and painted black, and it is the same as the fence which was installed by Taylor Wimpey around the garden of the former Sergeants’ Mess next door, last year. That fence replaced the old military railings which were very rusty and, sadly, too expensive to renovate. Ours was a different style of military fence – wire fencing with concrete fence posts and barbed wire on the top! The garden of the former Sergeants’ Mess and the garden of the Roman circus centre both provide access for visitors to parts of the site of the circus and to the modern interpretative elements which we have installed in the two gardens, ie the circus walkway and seating-stand profile, the replica stumps of the starting-gates, the viewing window, and the spectators’/visitors’ archway. The contractors started removing our old fence on Wednesday and hope to finish tomorrow (Tuesday 31st May).

The two large, enclosed gardens of the Roman circus are interesting in their own right, as part of the former Artillery (Le Cateau) Barracks: they belonged to the NAAFI and to the Sergeants’ Mess. The two gardens have also been, of course, the sites of two excavations by the Trust on parts of the site of the circus. In the garden of the former Sergeants’ Mess, we excavated the remains of the foundations of the starting-gates (carceres). In the garden of the NAAFI, we excavated parts of the foundations of the inner and outer walls of the seating-stand (cavea), buttresses, and part of the surface of the arena itself. Our circus walkway stands on the site of the circus and includes glass panels through which visitors can view the exposed remains which we excavated here.

We are very pleased with the new fence and we hope that our visitors and cafe customers like it, too. The next phase of our improvements at the circus centre start on or just after Monday 6th June: this is the construction of the visitors’ car-parking area. We are installing the fencing and the constructing the car-parking area with the aid of the grant from Colchester Borough Council, specifically to improve the facilities for visitors here at the Roman circus centre. The two gardens are held by Colchester Borough Council under covenant and are open to all members of the public, not just visitors to the circus centre and site!

With thanks to Trust volunteer David, who maintains the two gardens for us, and to Colchester Borough Council.

The new fencing is being installed for the Trust by Bland Landscapes of Ardleigh.

The images show the new fencing being installed at the Roman circus centre by Rob and Adam last week (Friday 27th May) and almost completed in the former NAAFI ‘garden’, looking through to the former Sergeants’ Mess garden and the replica stumps of the starting-gates.

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