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Colchester Leasing

Did You Know?

Colchester is a town in the county of Essex, in southeast England. In the Castle Park, Colchester Castle is a huge Norman keep, built on the foundations of a Roman temple. Its museum displays artefacts up to 2,500 years old.

With rambling streets and stunning countryside, Colchester is home to a 900 year old Norman Castle, the oldest and longest Roman wall in Britain, the first Augustinian priory established in England and the only known Roman Chariot Racing arena in the UK.

Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colchester therefore claims to be Britain's first city. It has been an important military base since the Roman era.

The Roman city was extremely important in Roman Britain and many of its attributes have survived to the present day. Roman Colchester was home to 3 theatres- more than any other in Britain, and hosted the only Roman chariot-racing Circus on the island.

Colchester is said to be the oldest recorded town in Britain on the grounds that it was mentioned by Pliny the Elder, who died in AD 79, although the Celtic name of the town, Camulodunon appears on coins minted by tribal chieftain Tasciovanus in the period 20–10 BC.

Camulodunum, 'fortress of the War God Camulos', was the celtic name for Colchester later adopted by the Romans, making this the first known literary reference to any named settlement in this country.

The Emperor Claudius ordered the Roman invasion of Britain in AD43, arriving in person once the fighting was all over to lead his army into what would be the capital of his new province, Camulodunum, present-day Colchester, which became Britain's first formally laid-out town and a useful port for trade.

The Grade I listed Holy Trinity Church, the oldest standing building in Colchester's historic city centre, dates to the 11th century, before the Norman Conquest. It was a popular place of worship until 1954 when it became vacant and was used for a short time as a museum of social history.

A visit to Colchester Castle is better than ever before with interactive displays and star exhibits, like the Colchester Gladiator Vase and Fenwick Hoard of Roman treasure. Have a go at building a Norman archway, dressing as an Iron Age Britonsteering a Roman chariot or firing our replica ballista at the east wall.

We have an important past, a confident present and a bold future, which is why Colchester has been granted city status as part of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Celebrations. The Council was formally presented with Letters Patent which officially marked us becoming a city on 23 November 2022.

The river Colne rises at Steeple Bumpstead & flows south east through Halstead & the Colne Valley to Colchester, where it becomes tidal before joining the Blackwater Estuary and ultimately the North Sea.

Home to 15,000 students from more than 130 countries, our Colchester Campus is the largest of our three sites, making us one of the most internationally diverse campuses on the planet - we like to think of ourselves as the world in one place.

Water supplied to the Town's municipal water users comes from a series of groundwater wells. You should drink our water! Colchester's drinking water is sourced from wells located in the center of town. It is filtered and treated and then distrib- uted to our customers.