Roman circus centre and site – successful opening day!

On Saturday (28th March), we held our opening day for the Roman circus centre and site here at Roman Circus House. We think that it was very successful!

The opening day was attended by a special guest, Boudicca of the Iceni, who arrived in a chariot drawn by two Trust archaeologists. She presided over the opening ceremony with Trust director Philip and then had a look round the circus centre and site. Visitors were able to try out the new visitor walkway over part of the remains of the circus and walk through the new information archway to the circus centre. We have installed new displays in the centre and enhanced the circus site for visitors, and we unveiled all the developments on the opening day. We were also very pleased to re-open our cafe!

The new displays include the remains of one of the three cones which formed one of the turning-posts of the circus, which we excavated and lifted from a site at Circular Road North in 2007. Our circus super-model has recently been completed and forms the centrepiece of the displays. A new oil painting by artist Peter Froste, of the start of a chariot race at Colchester Roman circus, was also on display. Visitors were able to view the large fragment of wall, from the Roman fortress at Colchester, for the first time ever. We also had a Roman food stall. Our visitors seemed to particularly enjoy exploring our touchscreen display of ‘the archaeology of Colchester’ and finding the archaeological sites nearest to their own homes.

The whole team of Trust archaeologists, excavators and volunteers were on duty at the opening day to provide guided tours, help visitors to handle archaeological finds and to chat. Jonathan of Colchester History Alive! gave two performances as a Romano-Briton at the circus, and Trust archaeologist Adam presented two short slide shows on the ‘Fenwick treasure’, which we excavated in 2014 at the Williams & Griffin store. We also had a couple of friendly Roman soldiers and a Roman auxiliary mingling with our visitors, who included many of our friends and donors, and Sir Bob Russell MP, local historian Andrew Phillips and Wivenhoe poet Martin Newell. After the circus centre and site, visitors could indulge in some treats and free samples in the cafe and then just enjoy our two public gardens and all their mature trees, now including a picnic table in front of our building.

Thanks to everyone who helped or contributed and to everyone who came along. We had a lot of good feedback from our visitors on the day (apparently Boudicca liked the circus centre very much). We enjoyed it, and we hope that you did!

From tomorrow (31st March 2015), the circus centre and site and the cafe will be open to visitors, from Tuesday to Saturday, 10.00am-4.30pm. Admission is free. The cafe is now being run by Sarah of Deli-licious in Long Melford. We look forward to seeing you!

See some images of the opening day on this web-site at www.thecolchesterarchaeologist.co.uk/?p=19143 and a video by Theresa and Jess Jephcott at www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoOktPM4gkY . See more images of the day by Steve Forrester at www.icloud.com/photostream/#A15yeZFhWk1jH .

The image shows the new painting by Peter Froste: the structural details of the circus are based on evidence from our excavation of the site of the starting-gates. [Images of ‘the archaeology of Colchester’ touchscreen to follow.]

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