#RomanCircus20 Blog – Barbara, Volunteer

Today we have some memories from Barbara who volunteered on the starting gate excavations. We thank her so much for her contribution!

“Starting gates revealed… February 2007

At the beginning of the 21^st century, Colchester Garrison started to vacate its historic sites south of the town centre and relocate.

I was familiar with the plans for the vacated sites. My job as a journalist at that time was property correspondent for the local newspaper.

As areas were cleared Colchester Archaeological Trust (CAT) made excavations. In 2004, CAT discovered the Roman citizens of the Colonia had flocked to the area to visit the chariot races. Robbed out remains of the stadium auditorium wall were identified.

At the local newspaper, we received press releases from builders and developers, who changed their plans, as CAT mapped out the orientation and extent of the circus. As a Friend of Colchester Archaeological Trust (FoCAT) I made site visits when Philip Crummy explained the dimensions of the circus.

When FoCAT were invited to volunteer to dig the starting gates, I put my name forward – I was surprised to be invited to dig!

On my days off work, I walked from my home to our meeting place in Flagstaff Road. Laurie Driver was leading the excavation. In my group we were two men and two women. We women did the digging after the men cut out, lifted, and removed the turf.

A digger was employed to remove the topsoil to speed things up. The stumps of the barriers between the gates had been partially revealed when Laurie indicated with his trowel how far I should dig down. As he did, he flicked out a lump which revealed itself to be painted Roman plaster. It was a eureka moment.

I was excavating the site of the governor’s box. Philip confirmed we were on the site of the centre of the gates, where the governor started the races.”