How and when did Colchester's New Town get its name?

We don’t know the term Victorians used 150 years ago to describe the building of hundreds of homes in one area, but we do know the name of the main driver behind this specific development.

James Frederick Goodey, a builder and architect by trade, developed New Town from 1878 onwards, with the simple aim of helping accommodate Colchester’s rapidly expanding population.

Valued – Old Heath Recreational Ground is one of New Town's defining locations (Image: Daniel Rees, Newsquest)

Pre-New Town, the vast majority of Colchester's residents were confined to houses within the town’s ancient Roman walls.

Goodey changed all that – and the scale of the New Town development meant he also built schools and public buildings which were all in the same Victorian style.

While the terraced houses stand cheek-by-jowl in the likes of Harsnett Road, Morant Road, and King Stephen Road, more spacious homes line Gladstone Road and Granville Road.

Traditional – a set of Victorian terraced houses in Scarletts Road (Image: Daniel Rees, Newsquest)

The names of Barrack Street, Artillery Street, and Cannon Street are an obvious nod to Colchester’s military heritage, the homes on those streets having been built on the sites of army barracks which were demolished after the Napoleonic Wars.

In an interview given as part of a research project by Richard Clarke in the 1980s, Colchester historian Andrew Phillips said New Town was essential to addressing the town’s overpopulation problem.

He said: “By the 1870s, Colchester had a housing crisis – the population had been growing for over 50 years, and all these extra people had been crammed into rotting tenements and shanty houses in the backs of decaying properties – no sewage, no proper water supply… they were slums and there was a health hazard.

Pioneer – John Goodey (Image: Web)

“Goodey saw the need for working class housing at that end of town at the Hythe.

“He always intended that these should be houses built to a very high standard – they were to be brick built with slate roofs, proper gardens and sewage and water supply, as well as a gas supply.

“These were all the facilities of a dream house of the 1870s.

Development – Harnsett Road was built as part of the New Town development in the late 19th century (Image: Daniel Rees, Newsquest)

“He had all sorts of opposition – the borough council wouldn’t let him drive New Town Road into Magdalen Street, he had to do all sorts of self-help gestures like dig down through the topsoil to the sand which lies underneath and use this for the building."

Mr Phillips continued: “He always made sure it wasn’t going to become a working-class ghetto.

“He was a strong liberal – he became a town councillor and he wanted there to be a full social mix there.

“So there are semi-detached houses for the middle class, there are large detached houses, including one he lived himself, so that there would be a whole community there.

Important – Wimpole Road is one of the main roads through New Town (Image: Daniel Rees, Newsquest)

“He was one of the founders of the Colchester Co-Op, another success story.

“The Co-Op was never so successful as when it founded its first branch – where? In New Town.

“From the outset, the Co-Op was a focal point – a social focal point, as well as a commercial one for this new community.

“New Town has always had a sense of community from that day to this, and it’s a marvellous monument and memorial to those Victorian pioneers.”