building ‘Roman’ stumps of the circus starting-gates

On Wednesday (5th March), local builders Mick and John started building the ‘Roman’ stumps of the circus starting-gates (carceres)  in the garden of the former Sergeants’ Mess, next door to the Trust’s building Roman Circus House. The stumps are being built on the exact positions of the starting-gates and above the Roman foundations. As the circus site is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, we had to get special permission from English Heritage to build above the circus remains. The remains are safe and protected below ground. We dug a shallow trench above the foundation of each starting-gate wall and lined each trench with plastic. Then we added rubble and a layer of cement.

There has been quite a delay between the groundworks for the stumps and the building of the stumps, so we are very pleased that building has begun – Trust director Philip is delighted with the new ‘Roman’ walls and Mick and John’s rapid progress. Today (7th March) they have already made a good start on four of the stumps. Hopefully the stumps will be completed in a couple of weeks and then we will commission the viewing screens for installation in the garden alongside them. After that, we only have to level off and re-seed the site with grass, and lay pathways, and we will be able to open the garden to visitors.

Colchester’s Roman circus had eight starting-gates with an exit gateway in the middle. They were standard starting-gates for a Roman circus, although it is quite unusual for there to be only eight. The other unusual thing about the starting-gates is that they are at the western and not the eastern end of the circus. The viewing screens will show how the starting-gates looked when complete. Our ‘Roman’ stumps are being built with a special lime mortar, with red bricks which have been hand-made and which the Trust commissioned from the Bulmer Brick and Tile Company. The stone is limestone from the Chicksgrove Quarry in Wiltshire, which looks similar to the Kentish ragstone used to build the actual Roman circus. Mick and John are using similar materials and also similar techniques to those used by the Roman builders on the circus itself, here on the same site, nearly 2,000 years later.

Mick and John say that this is quite an interesting job: ‘it’s different!’. Mick is interested in archaeology and has visited the colosseum in Rome and the Roman amphitheatre in Verona, as well as Hadrian’s Wall. He thinks that the former Sergeants’ Mess (built 1874-5), which overlooks the stumps of the starting-gates, was extremely well built. Mick and John also recently built the Trust’s new storage building, which you can see from the garden of the Sergeants’ Mess.

We are very excited about seeing the finished stumps of the starting-gates and we hope that you are, too!

The images show Mick working in front of the former Sergeants’ Mess; Mick and John at work, looking along the line of starting-gates; Mick and John with the completed walls of one of the stumps of the starting-gates, with Roman Circus house in the background; and the stump with the former Sergeants’ Mess behind.

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