The Trust contributes to new Colchester Museum displays

Yesterday (3rd October), Steve Yates of Colchester and Ipswich Museums came to Roman Circus House to talk to Trust director Philip Crummy. The museum in the castle at Colchester is closed until Easter 2014 because it is undergoing a major redesign, and the new displays will include new material. There are to be displays about the archaeology and Roman history of Colchester, such as the remarkable Late Iron Age-early Roman funerary site at Stanway which the Trust excavated, as well as the town’s Roman circus.

All the finds which the Trust excavates belong to the relevant site landowner, and are usually passed to the museum to be permanently stored or displayed in the museum. The Trust is also providing the museum with images – photo.s of the Stanway site and copies of the paintings of the development of Roman Colchester by professional artist Peter Froste.

These paintings were commissioned by the Trust and are based on archaeological evidence, and show the development of the town from the Roman fortress through different phases to the post-Roman town; they have now been updated to include the circus. The paintings were published in the Trust’s book City of Victory – the story of Colchester, Britain’s first Roman town and the original paintings are on display in our circus centre at Roman Circus House.

The Trust’s circus centre is open every day (not Sunday), 10.30am-4.30pm. Entry is free. Visitors can explore the circus centre, our current excavation on the site of part of the circus, and the site of the circus, including the circus starting-gates and the new earth bank which marks the site of part of the circus seating-stand. Free guided tours are available on Saturdays, on request.

The images show the paintings on display in the circus centre at Roman Circus House today, and the painting which features the circus in use, in circa AD 250.

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