Castle revamp aims to bring Colchester history to life

3:00pm Tuesday 24th November 2009

By James Calnan

LONG-AWAITED plans for Colchester’s landmark castle to get a major overhaul will be completed by the summer of 2012, it is hoped.

They hope their plans will win a further £1.6 million of lottery funding next year, with the remainder coming from other sources, including council funds and regional and European donations.

If all goes well, the castle would close for several months ahead of a major relaunch in 2012, just before the London Olympics.

Philip Wise, Heritage manager at Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service, said: “We’re working on a major exhibition for when we reopen in the summer of 2012, and that will be a very large international exhibition from China.”

Back in the summer, things were not looking so positive, after a previous bid for funding was rejected by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The latest announcement came after separate attempts to fund improvements to Castle Park and a £1million visitors’ centre for the town’s newly-discovered Roman Circus also failed, leading to concerns that Colchester’s tourist attractions could suffer as a result.

Robyn Llewellyn, the fund’s head for the east of England, said while there was not enough money to go round at the time, it thought the castle bid was an excellent one.

“The board were delighted to see the revised application and they were pleased to be able to offer development funding and a round one pass.

“This is an indication that the Heritage Lottery Fund really likes what they’re doing.

“I think this project includes everything we’re trying to support through the fund.

“The bid now incorporates new finds and new parts of the story of Colchester, like the Roman Circus and the Stanway graves.

“It’s a collection of international importance here in Colchester and it’s in one of the most important buildings in Britain.”

The castle currently attracts around 100,000 visitors from across the region every year – a figure council and museum bosses want to see increased.

Philip Wise said the upgrades would focus on two areas – the Norman keep itself and the history of Colchester.

He said: “We’re aiming to conserve and improve the building, and that will involve works to the 1930s roof, which, is beginning to show its age.

“We’re also putting in a new heating system, which will be state-of-the-art and improve the environment for visitors and collections.

“But, most of all, we want to tell the story of the castle in a much better way.

“One of the things visitors have said repeatedly is ‘please tell us more about the history of this fascinating building’, so that’s what we’re going to do.”

Mr Wise said the museum also wanted to tell the story of Colchester from the Roman era up until the 1700s.

It will take in the construction of the Norman keep, ordered by William the Conqueror, as well as its use by the Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins and the subsequent siege of Colchester in the 1640s.

Mr Wise said: “We’re going to include as many as we can of the new discoveries we’ve made, like the very important late Iron Age burials from Stanway that were excavated a few years ago, as well as the Roman Circus, of course.

“We’ll do all of this after engaging with the community. I believe that the overall benefit for visitors will be a much greater opportunity to engage with their past.

“When you go into the redisplayed castle, you will get a very clear story about the history of Colchester.

“You’ll find out about the remarkable events and the people who have lived, worked and died here.

“You’ll also have the opportunity to interact with that history in new and exciting ways.”