Friends of Trust guided tour of Colchester Castle: tomorrow, 16th March

Tomorrow (Saturday 16th March), the Friends of the Trust (FCAT) will be meeting for a guided tour of Colchester Castle with a choice of two sessions. The Castle Museum is closed from January 2013 until Easter 2014 for redevelopment; it is now empty and can be experienced more as a Norman keep than as a modern museum.

The keep was built on top of the foundations of the Roman temple of Claudius. The castle was ordered by William the Conqueror and its construction was begun c 1075. It was completed by c 1100 and the keep was the largest in Britain. It has survived all the vagaries of a long history, ie being besieged (in 1215-16), being used as a prison for five hundred years, and being half-demolished for building materials in the 17th century – it has also survived WW2 and a near miss by a bomb.

The keep has a dark history. The castle was built by the Normans to control and defend this area and, as a prison, it was also used as a means of control. Over the centuries, the prison held people accused or convicted of illegal activity,  prisoners of conscience, prisoners of war, rebels, victims, local people who had been taken hostage by the Constable of the castle or the gaoler, and even some State prisoners. Various prisoners died within the walls of the keep, for example, Quaker James Parnell in 1656 and several local women who were awaiting trial accused of being witches in the 1640s. John Johnson and his three young children were imprisoned in the castle in 1556, accused of heresy, along with William Mount and Alice Mount, Alice’s daughter Rose Allin, and Margaret Thurston and John Thurston. Four of these adult religious martyrs were executed by fire in the castle yard in 1557, while one died in the prison. Two Royalist commanders were executed by firing squad out the back, after the Siege of Colchester in 1648. Apparently, ‘Witchfinder General’ Matthew Hopkins also interrogated women here.

The Trust has undertaken several archaeological investigations in and around the keep, including the highest excavation in town, when we worked on the castle roof and found evidence of a chapel.

FCAT members meet tomorrow at the Castle entrance at 2.00 pm; entry £5.00 per member.

The castle is open to the public on other days and for other events: for more information, go to the diary of castle events on the Colchester and Ipswich Museums web-site at www.cimuseums.org.uk/whats-on.html

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