We are the Colchester Archaeological Trust, a registered charity (no 283354) and limited company (no 1578133) whose registered offices are at Roman Circus House, Roman Circus Walk, Colchester, Essex, CO2 7GZ in the UK.
Colchester Archaeological Trust is one of the longest-established archaeological practices in Britain. Since 1963, CAT (and before it the Colchester Excavation Committee) has carried out extensive urban excavations in Colchester, building up considerable in-house experience of complex stratified urban archaeology and associated finds research. More recently, we have worked farther afield, in Essex and Suffolk. The discovery of the Roman fortress in the 1970s and of Britain’s only Roman circus in 2004 are among the many highlights of over 50 years of fieldwork.
We provide archaeological and heritage services to private, commercial and local authority clients on a range of schemes – from large-scale housing developments, to quarries, pipeline routes and agricultural reservoirs. We aim to carry out this work to the highest standards, and to publish the results through our site reports and in academic journals. All site reports can be viewed through our website.
We are also an educational charity and provide opportunities for local people to engage in archaeology by visiting our Roman Circus Visitor Centre and arranging a variety of volunteering opportunities. When possible we also hold site open days and regularly give talks to local historical and civic groups. In this outreach work we are greatly assisted by the Friends of CAT, who host annual lectures on our work. The Trust is a registered archaeological organisation with the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists: please see www.archaeologists.net/
To learn more about our team, check out their introductory posts here: #MeetTheStaffMondays
