NEW chapters are always being written in history and a forthcoming book by a Colchester historian is making sure we are all up to date.

Andrew Phillips originally wrote Colchester : A History more than 15 years ago but has now created a new version of it which updates everyone on some major archaeological discoveries.

“I originally wrote it in 2002 when they had not found the Roman Circus so it really needed to have so much added to it really.

“It is pretty much a new book in that sense really. Colchester has so much history it really is hard to condense it in to one piece but that is what I have tried to do here,” says Andrew who is heavily involved in preserving the town’s past.

“When you write a book like this you are standing on the shoulders of other people’s research but a lot of it is none-the-less, my own work.

“When it come to the Roman Circus, for example, I did speak to Philip Crummy who was the archaeologist who actually identified it and in talking about that I have used two illustrations in this book which have not been seen before.”

The Colchester Archaeological Trust found Britain’s only Roman chariot circus during excavations at the former garrison in 2004.

It has since bought Roman Circus House, the former Army Education Centre, next to the circus following a public appeal and is now the guardian of the circus including its eight starting gates found in the gardens of the nearby Sergeants’ Mess.

Just two years ago it unearthed a further significant piece of the 1,800 year old structure at the Flagstaff House complex in Napier Road.

The large chunk of pink opus signinum building material with a curved surface would have been used as part of the foundation of the outer wall of the circus cavea, the seating stand.

Archaeologists also found parts of two buttresses as well as part of a robber trench, a trench which originally contained the foundations of a wall but from which the stones have been taken away.

“There would have been great ceremonial processions to the circus,” says Andrew.

He says people tend to think they know about Colchester and its history but there is so much more than people realise.

“The storyline for Colchester is that it was the first capital of Roman Britain before the Roman decided to have their capital at London instead.

“That is to over-simplify it because what they really did was recognise that London was much better suited for trade where it was.

“It had the Thames Estuary and all Colchester had was what was in comparison, a manky little stream !

“Colchester was actually originally chosen to be an outpost for King Cunobelin, who was called Cymbeline, by Shakespeare.

“He reigned for 40 years, which is a really long time during what were tribal conditions.

“The town is not just about Roman times and that is it - it rose again.

“Colchester is significant because it is A, close to London and B, it was a bit of a gateway, which is why Cunobelin made it his base. It had a nice route to his other centre too, which was at we now know as St Albans.”

Andrew says this route, which we know as the A120, is ancient and typical of a Roman thoroughfare - straight and flat.

He says tackling a history of Colchester meant he made a decision not to go into a huge amount of detail but to cover everything he could.

The book follows the town chronologically and also includes lesser known periods of its time line including the impact of the great depression in the 1930s.

“It was bad in Colchester because we were by that point very much an industrial town.

“There is a lot about Colchester that gets forgotten because there is just so much to it.

“For 400 years for example, it was the leading manufacturer of cloth but people remember places like Lavenham now for that because it does not have anything else about it - that is all there is to talk about.

“Colchester was at the forefront of so many things. It played a large part in engineering and it also played a major part in the Great War, and then there is its castle and the part that played.”

The castle was ordered by William the Conquerer - he commissioned two at the same time and the other was the Tower of London.

“He feared a serious Danish invasion and we now know that the castle was not much bigger than it is now when it was originally built.”

Andrew says his length of time studying Colchester’s history and writing articles on the subject stood him in good stead for putting the book together.

“I was trying to put down everything I knew and also to answer a few frequently asked questions as to why Colchester is not the county town and why it does not have a cathedral.

“The truth is we were never going to be a county town because of where we are positioned. We are just a suburb which has prospered,” he says.

Colchester : A History is available online and from bookshops including Red Lion Books in Colchester, at £14.99.