successful Trust presentation on the Fenwick Treasure

The Trust gave our special presentation on the Fenwick Treasure at firstsite in Colchester on Saturday (18th April) to a full house. The Fenwick Treasure is a remarkable hoard of Roman jewellery and coins which we excavated at the Williams & Griffin store in the High Street in Colchester in 2014. It had been hidden in a hole dug in the floor of a house in the Roman town during the Boudiccan revolt of AD 61, when the native Britons rebelled against the Roman occupation of Britain: the Roman towns of London, St Albans and Colchester were burned to the ground and many of their inhabitants were massacred. The treasure was never retrieved. When we discovered the treasure, there was so much local, national and international interest that we thought it would be good to do a public presentation.

The presentation was illustrated and involved four speakers. Trust director Philip spoke about Boudicca and the Roman town of Colchester at the time of the Boudiccan revolt. Trust archaeologist Adam Wightman spoke about our discovery and excavation of the treasure. Emma Hogarth of the Colchester Museums Service spoke about her work to conserve the treasure, and Nina Crummy described the composition of the treasure and how it represents the precious possessions of a Roman couple.

Feedback from a couple of members of the audience was that the presentation was ‘very good’. The event was sold out and we know that, unfortunately, a number of people were disappointed to not get tickets. However, we hope to repeat the presentation later in the year, when the treasure goes on display in Colchester Castle Museum.

The event was organised by the Friends of the Colchester Archaeological Trust (FCAT), and the profits are to go to the Colchester Roman Circus fund. Our thanks go to FCAT. Thanks to everyone for coming, and we hope you enjoyed it!

Our excavation at the Williams & Griffin store was funded by Fenwick Ltd.

The images show Mark Davies welcoming the audience at the beginning of the presentation, and showing a photo. from our Roman circus centre opening day in March (of the Boudicca re-enactor), and a photo. of one of the gold finger-rings from the Fenwick Treasure which was used in the presentation (it is engraved with the image of a dolphin).

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