limestone for the new circus starting-gates

Yesterday (19th December), a large load of limestone was delivered to Roman Circus House, all the way from Chicksgrove Quarry in Wiltshire. The Trust has bought 13 tons of the stone to build our replica bases of the circus starting-gates in situ. The starting-gates were originally built of Kentish Ragstone, and the Wiltshire limestone which we have bought is a ‘lookalike’ material. The limestone was quarried at Chicksgrove in large blocks which were then cut with a large blade to produce ‘slices’ of stone which are about 100 mm thick. These were then cut again into rectangular slabs and then ‘tumbled’ to produce a slightly rough or distressed effect. These slabs will be laid end to end in courses to replicate the bases of the walls of the Roman starting-gates, above the foundations of the actual starting-gates, in the garden of the former Sergeants’ Mess next door to Roman Circus House. We don’t know exactly how the walls were built but, based on the Roman town wall and evidence of other Roman buildings in Colchester, we will construct our replica bases with a course of brick, then four courses of stone, topped with another course of brick which will be incomplete in places. This will bring the replica bases up to a height of about 600 mm. The brick and stones will be set in traditional hydraulic lime mortar, which is kinder to stone and brickwork than modern grey cement.

The circus had eight starting-gates, with four on each side of the main gateway entrance into the circus arena, so we will be building ten wall bases, and two will be extended slightly to include parts of the seating-stands. The Trust and a team of volunteers excavated the foundations of some of the starting-gates in 2005 and this enabled us to produce a plan of the starting-gates.

The image shows the load of limestone already neatly stacked in the garden of the former Sergeants’ Mess, next door to Roman Circus House, by the foundations of our new circus starting-gates. Each stack weighs a ton.

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