Colchester Castle

Today I visited Colchester Castle with some staff and volunteers from Ancient House and the children in the Museum Club and the History Club. These clubs both meet regularly at Ancient House where they work on projects, listen to guest speakers, and participate in various other activities. Sometimes they go on trips, like they did today.

There was one adult assigned to every three children. My children were Georgia, Hadyn, and Connor. Georgia wants me to move to England permanently, Hadyn looks like a Weasley (but isn't too mischievous), and Connor prefers the Greeks to the Romans.

We walked down to the parking lot to get on the coach. I wasn't sure how much room there would be so I sat in the seat next to Georgia. After I saw all the empty seats I was sure my kids thought I was lame for sticking so close to them. But I had a nice conversation with Georgia and she asked me to sit with her on the ride back so I guess I wasn't too uncool.

The castle has been converted into a museum, so we started out by exploring the first floor in our groups. My favorite thing was Boudicea's chariot. It is actually the chariot that was used in a movie about Boudicea.

After that we ate lunch, then we went underground where a woman from the museum talked to us about the Romans. Under Claudius the Romans took over the land of the Trinovantes, including the capital city of Camulodunum (which is now Colchester). They made the local people build a temple to Claudius after he died. The underground chambers we were sitting in were filled with sand to support the weight of the temple. When Boudicea led the Britons against the Romans they burned the temple to the ground and took Camulodunum. Later on the Normans moved in and built a castle on top of the temple ruins. They used Roman debris, making Colchester the only red castle.

The woman from the museum led us upstairs where the kids got to handle some Roman artifacts and try their hand at building a round house and a Roman villa. When they were finished we looked around at the rest of the museum. Then we came home!