A WORLD-famous museum has promised to update its visitor information, after wrongly claiming that no Roman chariot circus had been found in Britain.

Colchester borough and county councillor Kevin Bentley took the British Museum to task after spotting the error during a trip to London with his wife Karen.

The town’s own Circus Maximus was discovered by the Colchester Archaeological Trust in 2004.

Work is now under way to show the circus’s layout, and secure £750,000 for the Sergeants’ Mess and gardens under which lie its eight starting gates.

Mr Bentley wrote to museum director Neil MacGregor requesting not only a correction, but help directing tourists to Colchester, the site of northern Europe’s only known circus.

In response, Dr Ralph Jackson, curator of Romano-British Collections, said: “As you can imagine, we frequently up-date and refresh our galleries, and brief details of Colchester’s circus were added, fairly soon after its discovery, to one of the labels in the most appropriate part of the ‘Roman army’ case, as well as to our website.

“You are quite correct, though, that the follow-up change to the in-case hanging information panel has not yet been made.

“I am grateful to you for drawing our attention to that, and I shall ensure that it is done as soon as possible,” he added.

Mr Bentley, a former cabinet member for culture and tourism, said what little information there was on Colchester’s circus find had been buried away on a small information board, while a larger version claimed no circus had ever been found in Britain.

“I am just delighted that they have recognised that the board needs updating, and, of course, this is a chance to promote Colchester,” he said.

“It is not about getting one over on the British Museum. It is about getting it corrected, and point people towards Colchester. And, of course, it is a chance for people in Colchester to go and see their town mentioned in the British Museum.”

*Candidates standing in the May 6 election for Colchester Council's Birch & Winstree ward are: Angela Livingstone (Green), James Spencer (Labour), Geraldine Wescott-Boyd (Liberal Democrats) and Kevin Bentley (Conservative).