A Walk Around Historic Colchester

I had a lovely day out with five friends today, despite the miserable weather. Rev Christine used to be an official guide for tours around Colchester, and although she doesn’t walk too well these days she gamely got on her mobility scooter and took us around many of the historic spots in the city, telling us all the stories about them on the way. It’s given me a much better overview of Colchester than I had before, and we had a lot of fun even though the rain fell most of the time. At the end, we all had a delicious lunch at Carluccio’s inside the Fenwick’s department store.

My blip is of Holy Trinity church, the only Saxon building still standing in Colchester's historic city centre and in fact the oldest standing building. The tower has an arrowhead (triangular) arch over the west door of the tower, typical of late Saxon style, and has re-used Roman bricks incorporated into its walls. It dates to the mid-11th century, probably around 1050 AD. The body of the church as we see it today was built in 1349. The church was made redundant in 1956 and is no longer used for worship. The City Council has secured Government funding towards a big project to adapt the church building and its beautiful green square as a community space, ensuring its preservation into the future.