COLCHESTER High Street is the oldest high street in Britain.

The Romans built a road here nearly 2,000 years ago, the main street in the heart of their new city or colonia in the decades after they invaded Britain in AD43 and captured the Ancient British stronghold of Camulodunum which they made the first capital of Roman Britain.

Ancient British tribes, such as the Trinavante from our part of the country, only had dirt tracks.

The Romans were renowned for their road building skills and it was in Colchester – with a grid pattern layout of streets inside the area later protected by the Roman town wall – that their road building in this country got underway.

The Romans built their main road along the brow of the hill, overlooking the Colne valley, which linked the main West Gate (Balkerne Gate as we know it) with the East Gate at the top of East Hill.

The junction with Head Street and North Hill was, in Roman times, a crossroads.

The High Street alignment we know today is not as straight as when built by the Romans, notably in the section between Maidenburgh Street and Holly Trees Museum where following the Norman invasion in 1066 the construction of the Castle forced the road to bulge around what was the edge of the outer bailey of the castle defences.

After the Roman occupation ended in the 5th century, for more than 500 years very few people lived inside the Roman walls.

Buildings became ruins and the roads fell into disrepair.

However, we know the line of the High Street survived because the Normans built a Moot Hall on the northern side of the road, on the site of today’s town hall.

The High Street has evolved over the past millennium.

My article today contrasts the current High Street with that of 50 years ago in 1966, within the lifetime memory of many readers.

At first glance it seems there has been minimal visual change – although the exceptions are the wicked loss of the impressive late Victorian Cups Hotel (and the Corn Exchange behind) in the late 1960s which followed the equally scandalous demolition of St Nicholas Church in the previous decade.

But apart from these it could be said that changes to the street scene since 1966 have not dramatically damaged the overall appearance.

There have been only a handful of new buildings, along with some changed frontages, of which the most recent is that of the £30 million redevelopment of Fenwicks (formerly Williams and Griffin).

But while visually the physical changes are not immediately obvious, there have been massive changes in the names of the occupiers and the businesses.

Armed with a list of the 158 entries for the High Street in the 1966 Benham’s Street Directory, half-a-century later my weekend walk revealed only a dozen or so remain the same. A handful of others are conducting the same business, but with a different name.

The following is a snapshot of some of the “then and now” descriptions to give a flavour of changes and what has remained unchanged. I have not mentioned every entry in the 1966 directory.

Fifty years ago, Boots the Chemist occupied 1 High Street (corner of Head Street); today it is Coral betting shop. Businesses in the rest of the shops in the section from here to Bank Passage have all changed – coal merchants Thomas Moy, Neal’s man’s shop and outfitters Hepworth & Son have gone.

Barclay’s Bank is still there but with a large extension through to Culver Street.

Few properties now display numbers, so exact comparisons are sometimes difficult.

But it would seem that Purdy’s restaurant in 1966 is where Burger King is today.

National Provincial Bank is now Waterstones bookshop.

Next door, Owen Ward outfitters is now Moss Brothers.

Greggs occupies what 50 years ago was J. Lyons’ “restful tray” restaurant; Millets is in the former premises of W H Smith and clothing firm Next is where gents outfitters Meakers Ltd used to be.

Superdrug is in a single shop which replaced Heasman & Son and estate agents C M Stanford.

Westminster Bank has become NatWest, Midland Bank is now HSBC, and Lloyds Bank has had its name restored to what it was called back in 1966.

At No28, White Stuff trades from what was once Cramphorn Ltd, and The Edinburgh Woollen Mill is where Dolcis shoes used to be.

Burtons, on the corner of Pelham’s Lane, is currently being converted into Metro Bank.

SIR BOB RUSSELL

  •  To be continued next week.