Three Months in Colchester, Essex

Well, now that we are relocating we can write about the town we've been living in for nearly three months now.

We were lucky to have landed in the beautiful town of Colchester, located in North Essex county of England. Lucky because it is the oldest recorded town in England, dating back to before 49 AD, when it was a Roman city. Following it's Roman occupation there is about a 400 year gap in what life was like in Colchester before it was occupied by the Saxons in 400AD.

The castle we have walked past countless times, and wrote about in both of our main blog, and photographed in previous entries here, is an English castle built atop the ruins of the Temple of Claudius. With an interesting history (which we'll try to write more about in a following entry).

There are many historical sites in Colchester; a project is underway where they are unearthing an old Roman Colosseum that the town of Colchester was built on top of. Also located in the town are the ruins of the earliest known Christian church in England, thought to date back to the 4th century.

With old Roman walls surrounding the castle grounds, the lush green grass in Castle Park that surrounds the cast, with lush bright green grass that rivals that of a golf courses, and beautiful River Colne running along the edge, full of ducks, swans (read about the swans: http://just-call-me-frank.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/all-queens-swans.html), and assorted waterfowl, Colchester really was a beautiful place to spend the last three months. (Read more about the area, and how we feel about James moving away for us: http://just-call-me-frank.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/sacrifice-of-love-journal-entry.html)

Also see:

• England In Photos: Week 1
• England In Photos: Week 2
• England In Photos: Week 3

There will be another series of photos of Colchester in the following entry, because we don't want to go get the camera to plug it in to get the photos off of it...it's... *points in distance, which is really four feet away* ...over there; as well as some more writing about our experience there.

In the meantime, check out all the photos we've taken and posted so far. The town really is breathtaking.

On the way to the grocery store.

The view from the master bedroom in the flat.

River Colne on the edge of Castle Park, Colchester

Castle Park

Colchester Castle

Scenes Around Colchester

Jumbo, the retired Colchester water-tower, and the statue atop the Mercury Theater

Colchester market day

 

Colchester Baptist Church

One of the homes of composer John Wilbye

Highwoods Country Park

More information:
Colchester tourism site:  http://www.visitcolchester.com/default.aspx
Roman Colchester: http://www.visitcolchester.com/Roman-Colchester.aspx

England In Photos: Cumbria - Part IV - Brough Castle

Brough Castle, located in Brough, Cumbria, England, is a castle built on the ruins of an old Roman Fort (Fort of Vertris). It is one of England's first stone castles and was built in the 1090's. It was rebuilt in the 1180's after an attack of England by William the Lion, a Scottish King, when all but it's keep (the most protected part of the castle) was destroyed. The castle has been handed down to one other owner before passing to the Clifford family who occupied the castle from 1268-1521 until the castle was ruined by a fire. After 140 years Lady Anne Clifford  and came under the protection of the Ministry of Works since 1920's.

We visited the castle twice in the same day, so some pictures are darker than others. It was an amazing thing, and the first castle we have been inside.  Castles are fantastic, and interesting to us. To learn something interesting about castle washroom/toilets make sure you take a look at the final picture in this entry.

Brough Castle ruins, taken March 18, 2012 by us.

From the inside looking out

Stainmore Pass, view from the remains of the kitchen of Brough Castle

Part of the square keep of the castle ruins

What we can only assume this is the remains of the garderobe (a medieval castle washroom)
A square room fitted with a stone or wooden bench, sometimes up to as many as 4-6 hole in it.
The chutes (the square holes you see) of the garderobe provided an exit for waste which often led
to the castle moat, or grounds.
A 'garderobe' is also the name for a cloakroom/wardrobe, even for the clothing of guest clothing
(which in some cases doubled as the washroom) because they believed that that ammonia
from the waste protected clothing from moths, lice and other community spread insects/bugs.

More info on Brough Castle: http://www.visitcumbria.com/pen/brough-castle.htm

England In Photos: Week 3

We didn't have a very eventful week this week, we did have a very lovely dining experience which we plan to write about soon, so keep an eye out for that.

It snowed in our location last Saturday, for the first time of the season, so here are some pictures we took on our walkabouts.

Come, let's take he same walk...only this time in snow...

The first part of the walking path into town center starting about two blocks from the flat...

Sights on the way....

Today...a week after some of the snow had time to melt...

Because who doesn't love a swan's butt.

This was taken primarily for the heron that
is on the bank, shown in the lower
portion of the photo.