Circus: no need to bring on the clowns
Colchester's Roman circus, unearthed recently at the Abbey Field site and the only-known one in Britain (similar to Rome's, see pic above), is another free gift from the past with the potential to enrich Colchester immensely. Unfortunatley, despite uproar from many quarters, Colchester Council appears resolute to proceed with its plan to build a road across the find. In the Essex County Standard on February 2, 2007, our council's planning portfolio holder is reported to have said "We are actively working on ways to protect this significant find". Actively working, note - not just plain working. Follow this link for press cuttings and comment from the Camulos site. For location of Abbey Field, see map, waymark 19. See MS Virtual Earth shot of site here (best in Explorer or Firefox).
posted by poncrinator at 10:26
6 Comments:
Having just moved to Colchester, in some ways I don't feel qualified to comment on the ways of the local Council. That said, I've already had some experience of the planning department, and I think there is an obsession with allowing new developments, without actually looking at the impact on a long-term basis, particularly as to lost cultural icons and issues of historical significance.
Wow, just wow.
Great links!
You haven't posted anything in quite a while. I hope everything is ok.
I enjoy reading your blog.
Best wishes,
George Askew
Thank you, George, for your kind message – it's great to hear from you. Indeeed it has been quite a while, and I apologise for this break in posting (not good for a blog, I know). But I can report some developments going on in the background: Poncrinator is now three people, whose day jobs are in design/editorial, architecture and photography, so we're hoping to improve on the quality and range of content on the blog. Your comments will always much appreciated, so we look forward to hearing from you again in the future.
Please consider posting this petition to see if we can prevent the atrocity happening.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/SaveColchesterHistory/
I am actually wondering when the Colchester Castle is going to be flattened to make space for some flats. It might sound ridiculous, but why not? The council have no respect for the circus, which is monumentally important, so why respect the castle?? It makes no sense to flatten one and keep the other.
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