the CAG enjoy visit to Roman circus site and centre

On Monday evening (23rd June), the Colchester Archaeological Group (CAG) visited the Trust at Roman Circus House. Trust director Philip gave them a guided tour of the Roman circus site and centre, including our recently-completed stumps of the circus starting-gates and the exposed remains of the circus in front of Roman Circus House, as well as our flythrough of the 3d-modelled circus on our new screen. Philip also talked about the NAAFI (the original use of Roman Circus House) and showed the CAG our temporary display of modern military images.

An important part of this display is a selection of images of Sergeant Jim Goodman of the Royal Field Artillery, who was stationed here at the Artillery (Le Cateau) Barracks in the 1930s. Sergeant Goodman’s son, Don Goodman, is a very active member of the CAG and former Trust volunteer, and he was on the guided tour! He has very kindly allowed us to copy his original photo.s and display them here; in the future we will display more of his images and tell Sergeant Goodman’s story at the barracks. (He was actually stationed here in 1937, when Roman Circus House was built, and he left in 1939 as part of the British Expeditionary Force in France; he escaped from Dunkirk and returned to Colchester.)

The CAG is a long-established local voluntary group. They undertake voluntary archaeological work such as excavation and post-excavation, publish a quarterly newsletter, and present a programme of weekly lectures in the winter. The CAG and the Trust are closely connected. Senior Trust archaeologist Howard Brooks is a member of the CAG, and Philip Cunningham of the CAG sits on the Trust’s Council of Management as the CAG’s representative. The CAG library is also housed in a room on the top floor at Roman Circus House! The Trust sometimes undertakes projects for and with the CAG, and the CAG assists the Trust; for example, their members recently helped to complete a ground-penetrating radar survey of a site at Hedingham Castle for us.

We were very pleased to welcome the CAG to the Roman circus site and centre, and the CAG said that Philip’s tour was very entertaining. It was a lovely evening.

Visit the CAG web-site at http://caguk.net/

The image shows part of our modern military display, with the selected images from Don Goodman’s great archive on the left.

.