Rebuilt five years later by the Romans (who added a wall around the town this time just to be sure), it lost some of its importance when the capital was moved south to Londinium. Parts of the old town wall and western gate can still be seen on Balkern Hill, just by the Hole in the Wall pub; this area is also the site of the only Roman circus in the country, while excavations have also unearthed evidence of a pre-Roman settlement and a Roman theatre at Gosbecks Farm to the south. In an early example of recycling, abandoned Roman
stone and the foundations of the Roman temple were used in the building of Colchester Castle, ordered by William the Conqueror in 1069 and finished in around 1100. Today the castle houses a museum charting the town’s history and you can even take a tour of the temple foundations before enjoying a walk through the surrounding green parkland. Colchester is a vibrant, bustling place today with great
shopping, restaurants, cafés and a thriving theatre. Contemporary culture has a home there with the recently completed centre for the visual arts, Firstsite, presenting artists’ exhibitions, hands-on art classes and cultural talks. For lovers of the sea, Essex has more than 350 miles of
coastline – the longest in the country – encompassing the relative wilds of Mersea Island, famous for its oysters; the genteel Victorian-style beach huts of Frinton; and nature reserves including Fingeringhoe Wick (125 acres of saltmarsh and woodland, famous for its nightingales). Harwich, situated on the coastal tip of the border
between Essex and Suffolk, boasts a long maritime history. Christopher Jones, the master of the Mayflower (the ship that carried the pilgrims to the USA), hailed from the town and it became a naval base in 1657. It remains a busy passenger ferry port and the old part of the town has been designated a conservation area. Over to the west of the county, straddling the border
with Hertfordshire, is Hatfield Forest, an ancient woodland that became a medieval hunting ground where some of the trees are more than 1,000 years old. The traditional practices of coppicing and pollarding continue as they always did, while the addition of a lake and the Shell House in the 18th century amid landscaping by Capability Brown, only serves to enhance the environment.
10 BRITAIN
An abundance of quaint chocolate-box villages, such as Wendens Ambo and Finchingfield, share the county with traditional market towns
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