The Balkerne Gate is one of the best-preserved sections of the Roman wall in Colchester and the oldest surviving Roman gateway in Britain (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Patrick Comerford
During our visit to Colchester earlier this week, I walked alongside parts of the Roman wall, which is the earliest and the best-preserved Roman town wall in Britain. The walls were once almost 6 metres high, with six gates, and the length of the circuit of the entire wall is 2,800 metres (1¾ miles).
Only two of the six gates survive above ground today, but the locations of the other four are marked by metal plaques and strips in the pavement, and three further gates were added to the wall in the mediaeval period.
The Romans began building the wall between 65 CE and 80 CE after the destruction of the town during the revolt by Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni. When she rebelled against Roman rule, one of her first acts was to destroy Colchester, then the Roman town of Camulodunum and capital of the new Roman colony of Britannia.
The Roman legions of Camulodunum were away on campaign, and Boudicca was almost unopposed. After moving on to sack St Albans and London, she was eventually defeated, but the ease with which she had taken Colchester alarmed the Roman authorities. They set about building a wall around Camulodunum to defend the town and its inhabitants against further attacks and as a statement of Roman power.
The Romans began building the wall around 70 CE and finished it around 90 CE. It took about 40,000 tonnes of building material and was built by legionaries and local Britons. The area that is now Essex had no good quality building stone, so the wall was built of fired clay bricks, flint and septaria, a brittle stone brought from the coast near Walton-on-the-Naze and Harwich. The wall was built over a foundation trench 3 metres wide and 1.2 metres deep, and that was filled with layers of brick and mortar.
The clay for bricks was dug locally. Much of Essex was heavily forested at the time, supplying wood for firing the clay to make bricks. The lime for making mortar came from Kent. The Romans also used material left behind by Boudicca’s army.
The Romans began building the wall in Colchester after the destruction of the town by Boudicca (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Above ground, the wall consisted of: inner and outer faces built of courses of clay bricks and stone blocks, ‘dressed’ to a roughly square shape, and an inner core of rubble and mortar. In many places, the outer and inner faces were removed after the Roman period and used in new building projects in the town so that only the rubble core remains. However, the outer face survives near Balkerne Gate.
The wall was freestanding when it was first built. After about 100 years, an internal bank was added to strengthen the wall, and can still be seen in Castle Park, close to Duncan’s Gate. The wall included a series of rectangular towers and drains. None of the towers survive above ground, but the bases of several towers have been seen in archaeological excavations.
In the Roman period, the wall had six gates located at regular intervals. Of these only two survive above ground today: Balkerne Gate and Duncan’s Gate. The area around the Balkerne Gate is one of the best-preserved sections of the Roman wall and the oldest surviving Roman gateway in Britain. It was the original main entrance to Camulodunum and the gate for the main road leading towards London. It had two large archways for wheeled vehicles and two smaller ones for people on foot.
The gate was transformed into a Triumphal Arch between 50 and 60 CE to celebrate the conquest of Britannia by the Emperor Claudius. When the wall was built, the archway was incorporated into the structure. Later, the main gateway was moved further south to the Head Gate, at the junction of Headgate and Southway. Today, only the southern pedestrian archway and guardroom survive, representing less than a quarter of the original gateway. One side of the gate opening is now filled by the aptly-named pub, the Hole in the Wall.
One side of the opening of the the Balkerne Gateis now filled by the Hole in the Wall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Just south of Southway, by the police station, are the foundations of the oldest known Romano-Christian church, built beside a graveyard outside the wall.
Duncan’s Gate is a small postern gate named after Dr PM Duncan, a former Mayor of Colchester and the 19th century amateur archaeologist who led one of the earliest excavations at the site in 1853. As well as the remains of the single entrance, some fallen masonry was part of the archway over the gate. This gate was conserved and left visible following further excavations in the 1920s.
North Gate provided access to the river Colne and the northern suburbs of Colchester. The original Roman design is thought to have been a single archway with an overhead walkway. North Gate remained in use for many centuries and was only demolished in 1823.
The East Gate was built in the Roman period to provide access to the town’s port on the river Colne. The gate was rebuilt in the mediaeval period but was badly damaged in the Siege of Colchester in 1648 and collapsed three years later.
Saint Botolph’s Gate was originally a Roman gate used to reach the cemeteries outside the town wall. It was also on the processional route between the Temple of Claudius and the Circus, or chariot-racing track. The gate was demolished in 1814.
Head Gate became the main gate for the road to London when Balkerne Gate was blocked in the late Roman period. Head Gate was built as a double-arched gateway and its foundations have been found in recent years. In mediaeval times it was rebuilt as a single, wide gateway. Head Gate was demolished by 1766.
There is a Roman drain beside Saint James’ Church on East Hill, sections of the wall can be seen at the north edge of Castle Park, and other sections of the wall are visible from the raised section at the north end of the Upper Park, behind the castle.
At the end of the Roman period, the town wall was abandoned around 400 CE and, along with the rest of the town, it fell into disrepair. Rebuilding may have begun in the 10th century when the Anglo-Saxon King Edward the Elder strengthened the wall after he expelled the Vikings from Colchester in 917.
One of he surviving bastions or small projecting round towers in Priory Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
The Normans made further repairs to the town wall after 1066 as they strengthened their hold on Colchester. Three further gates were added to the wall during the medieval period, ca 1400.
Scheregate, built in the mediaeval period, takes its unusual name from the Anglo-Saxon word sceard, meaning a gap or notch. It gave people a short cut through the town wall to Saint John’s Abbey to the south. As in the mediaeval period the gateway still has shops to either side.
Saint Mary’s Steps, near Balkerne Hill, were created in the 15th century when a Roman drain was enlarged to create a small pedestrian gate or postern. Nearby is the base of an internal rectangular tower of Roman date. The name of the gate comes from Saint Mary at the Walls Church, now the Colchester Arts Centre.
Scheregate and Saint Mary’s Steps are still in use, but there are no surviving traces of Rye Gate.
Roman bricks are built into the arches and walls of the ruins of Saint Botolph’s Priory (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
At Priory Street, the wall follows the curve of the street, past the ruins of Saint Botolph’s Priory, where Roman bricks are built into the ruined priory arches and walls.
The main evidence for the mediaeval period is seen in the surviving bastions, or small projecting round towers in Priory Street and Vineyard Street. Four of the original eight bastions remain above ground today. They were built into the thickness of the wall at the time of the Peasants’ Revolt in 1380. Saint John’s Abbey gatehouse nearby was built after the abbey was attacked by the rebels, and the town authorities feared further outbreaks of violence.
This section of wall was heavily damaged by artillery fire during the Siege of Colchester in the Civil War in 1648, and was repaired with profuse use of red brick. At the end of the siege, Parliament decided to demolish part of the wall in Priory Street to prevent it from being used for defensive purposes in the future.
When the wall lost its significance it ceased to be regularly maintained. Houses were built up against the wall, passages and cellars were cut through and into it nd stone was removed for new building projects. A large section of the wall along Balkerne Hill fell into the road in 1795.
Regular repairs and maintenance of the wall began again in the 1940s and have continued, so that today the Roman wall in Colchester is the earliest and the best-preserved Roman town wall in Britain.
The Roman wall in Colchester is the earliest and best-preserved Roman town wall in Britain (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
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