Colchester, a tourists guide! (Colchester in General)

Member Name: scattyredhead

Product:	Colchester in General
Date:	29/05/01 (195 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: So much history

Disadvantages: Too many houses

I am writing this op from the point of view of one who was born in this historic town. In doing this I am hoping to present a side of Colchester that might be of some interest to any would-be tourists who might be browsing this site right now. However if you are a tourist why on earth are you sat indoors on a wonderful day like this? You should be out and about! On second thoughts, read and rate this first before you go will you? Many thanks!!

Many of you may know that Colchester has the honour of being known as “the oldest recorded town in Britain” It was originally called Camulodunum , the king of the town was called Cunobelin, otherwise known as Old King Cole in the nursery rhyme! There is a very nice pub that goes by the same name too! Boadicea was the Queen of the Iceni tribe and she sacked the town in AD60. There is an incredible sculpture based on her at the Turner Rise development right by Colchester North Station (which incidentally is the main station in the town where trains from London stop after about an hours journey). The sculpture caused a bit of controversy when she was first erected with the people of the town torn between liking and hating it. I am one of those who like it! I think it is a good bit of modern art. Anyway I have gone off track here!!

The Normans invaded the town in 1066 and the built a castle on the remains of the old Roman temple. The Castle is very much the big tourist attraction for the town. It is slap bang in the middle of the town and is definitely a “must visit” for all you tourists out there! I have been there several times; mainly on school visits as a parent helper. I even got to go under the castle on one occasion! It has the largest keep in Europe! That is something I didn’t know. I have done quite a bit of research on Colchester to back up my own personal knowledge. Much more information can be found on the following website: www.thisisessex.co.uk. If you haven’t the
time to read any more of this op right now may I suggest that you give this site a look one of these days if you want to find out a bit more about our historic town.

The castle is situated in its rambling grounds, consisting of beautifully maintained flower gardens, a large fishpond, and a garden specially created for those people with sight problems. All of the flowers in this garden are described to the person by means of a Braille plaque in front of each one. There is also a play area for younger children to let steam off and rolling lawns for their shattered parents to stretch out on. Office and shop workers can often be found taking their lunch somewhere in this peaceful park away from the hustle and bustle of the High Street. I know I used to be one of them! It is so hard to drag yourself back to your stuffy office after relaxing there for an hour or so!
The things I have talked about above are all to be found in the Upper castle park, there is a Lower one too. Here you will find a boating lake, acres and acres of lawns and the cricket pitch (is it called a pitch, I don’t know?). In the months of August and July these areas host the towns season of Concerts In The Park. Ranging from “Prom” type events to tribute bands such as Abba and Queen. I haven’t yet been to one of these, I keep meaning to but never have yet. If I do this year I will add a bit of an update to this and let you know what it was like!

I ought to get away from the castle a bit now and tell you about some of the other things that you can do in the town. The trouble is that the castle is such a big attraction on the town and there is so much to tell you about it! Shall I go on to shopping in Colchester? Ok yes lets do, my favourite subject!

Shopping is widely spread out in the town. You have the High Street with its usual array of clothing shops and far too many fast food joints! Then you have the Culver precinct where you can sit by the
fountain in the Summer (or Winter if you are so inclined!) and relax a little before you tackle the shops surrounding you! Like Debenhams, Woolies, Virgin record shop, Athena and many smaller outlets. As I mentioned there are plenty of places to eat in the town, in my mind too many. But then the food industry is a big thing; after all we all need to eat!
I apologise here for not mentioning the Colchester nightspots in great detail. The reason being that I am writing this mainly for the benefit of people interested in visiting my home town for the culture and history. But if you are interested in the night life all I can tell you is that we have the Hippodrome in the High Street, Chicago Rock café Queen Street, Club Forin, St Botlophs roundabout and quite a few out of town places that I have never visited. At least not since I was in my late teens, far too long ago to mention!!

I will hit you with a few facts about the town now. I am trying to condense this..honest!
Colchester is a garrison town and houses 5,000 troops from various regiments at different times.
Essex University is 2 miles from the town centre. Sometimes the town looks very cosmopolitan with the student from different countries wandering around!
It is close to Stansted airport and the seaports of Felixstowe and Harwich, So the other European countries are in convenient reach.
We are twinned with, Avignon in France: Wetzlar in Germany and Imola in Italy.
As I mentioned earlier on too London is but an hours train journey away.
Colchester was the headquarters for Witchfinder general, Matthew Hopkins! Witch nicely brings me back to the history side of Colchester!
The only trouble with living somewhere with so much history is that as it is on your doorstep you do take it for granted. My friend who loves in The Seychelles says the same about where she lives…yeah right!!

17th century refugees from the Low Countries bought weaving to us and an area of
the town called The Dutch Quarters is well worth a look too. The recently refurbished Siege house at the bottom of East Hill still bears the musket holes from the time of Oliver Cromwell. Other notable buildings well worth a look at are: The George Hotel in the High Street, I am told this is a great place to stay too. Where better to base yourself than right in the middle of the town, a great place to start your exploring from. No, I don’t know the owners either so I am not touting for business for them! The Red Lion, also in the High Street is another nice place to eat in. If you take a walk down Stockwell Street, right alongside the town hall, you will come across lots of other very old buildings too. You will eventually reach the Dutch Quarters that I mentioned earlier. If you keep on even further you will reach the Lower Castle Park and the River Colne.

Another building that I simply have to mention is our very own Jumbo! Jumbo is a water tower at the top of North Hill. It is no longer in use and is now privately owned. It is called jumbo because of the weather vane right at the very top, which is in the shape of an elephant! It was built in 1883 and in its day held 230,000 gallons of water. My late Grandma told me of the time they saw it overflow in the war years, which must have been something else! Sadly no definite plans have been accepted as to what Jumbo will be used for the future. Several proposals have been put to the council, such as private accommodation with a public viewing area right at the top, as well as many others. But nothing has been agreed on yet. I do hope that something will be sorted soon before Jumbo falls into disrepair, which would indeed be a travesty.

I have nearly finished, so you can all begin to breathe sighs of relief!!
Other things that Colchester boasts include; Leisure world, with outside rapids and flumes; Aqua Springs, a great place to really chill out, with the usual saunas, steam rooms, Jacuzzis
etc is right next to Leisure world. Mega bowl, been there, done that, great fun! Rollerworld which I believe has one of the biggest maple floors for skating in Europe!
Other open-air sites to enjoy include; Hilly fields, Lexden Park, Highwoods country park. We also have a splendid zoo the other side of town, well worth a day out on its own!

To round it all up, I am nearly done…honest! Colchester is surrounded by some of the most amazing countryside, namely Constable Country, where the painter John Constable lived. I am very fortunate to live very near to here. In 1997 an American couple saw images of Colchester on the Internet and liked what they saw so much that they sold up and came to live here! Not a bad recommendation eh?
Thank you for staying with me till the end, you did didn’t you? And allowing me to give you a bit of an insight into my little part of the world!
Kazzie!!

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