Roman town wall (east side)

Grade I.
[Replacement text. Roman town wall erected c AD 65-80. First town wall to be erected in Britain. Built of layered septaria rubble in mortar with ashlar faces of brick and septaria blocks set in either white mortar or opus signinum. The wall was about 3,000m long and incorporated six gates. The best preserved section of wall is on the south side of the Balkerne Gate (shown here) where it stands to its highest point and where the outer face is almost intact. In many other places, the face of the wall was robbed for building stone probably from about AD 1000 to 1375 with the result that the core was exposed. To strengthen the weakened and damaged wall, a series of eight bastions was added along the south-east part of its circuit c AD 1375-1425 when sections of the wall were either rebuilt or refaced. The end of the Siege of Colchester in 1648 marked the end of the wall as a defensive structure. Over the succeeding centuries, its gates were gradually pulled down to ease traffic movements and parts of it were either hidden under houses or obscured by large areas of unsympathetic repair work. Nevertheless the town of Colchester is still one of the best preserved Roman town walls in Britain.]