Balkerne Gate is a Roman gateway in Colchester (the former Camulodunum). It is the largest surviving gateway in Roman Britain [1] and was built where the Roman road from Londinium intersected the town wall of Camulodunum. [2] It is a scheduled monument [3] and a Grade I listed building. [1]
According to Historic England, the gate probably dates to the 2nd century AD. It appears to have incorporated an existing monumental arch from the 1st century. [4]
Sir Mortimer Wheeler excavated at the site in 1917. [5] According to a paper he published subsequently:
The gate consisted of two broad carriageways, each 17 ft (5.2 m) wide, flanked by two footways, each about 6 ft (1.8 m) wide. The whole gate projects 30 ft (9.1 m) in front of the town wall, and the total extent of the frontage is 107 ft (33 m). [6]
Although it is the best-preserved Roman gateway in the country, it only survives in part. The remaining gateway is the south-side arched footway; however, the remains of a guard tower are also visible. The rest of the gateway has been overbuilt by the 18th-century Hole in the Wall public house, which is also a listed building. [7]
Roman town gates sometimes had as many as three entrances but were usually limited to one or two. The Balkerne Gate, however, had four gates, and unusually wide carriageways.
There are no other quadruple gates in Britain but there are a few elsewhere in Europe; for example, the Porte d'Auguste at Nîmes, the Porte Ste. André and the Porte d'Arroux at Autun, and the Palatine Towers at Turin.
Camulodunum, the Ancient Roman name for what is now Colchester in Essex, was an important castrum and city in Roman Britain, and the first capital of the province. A temporary "strapline" in the 1960s identifying it as the "oldest recorded town in Britain" has become popular with residents and is still used on heritage roadsigns on trunk road approaches. Originally the site of the Brythonic-Celtic oppidum of Camulodunon, capital of the Trinovantes and later the Catuvellauni tribes, it was first mentioned by name on coinage minted by the chieftain Tasciovanus some time between 20 and 10 BC. The Roman town began life as a Roman legionary base constructed in the AD 40s on the site of the Brythonic-Celtic fortress following its conquest by the Emperor Claudius. After the early town was destroyed during the Iceni rebellion in AD 60/61, it was rebuilt, reaching its zenith in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. During this time it was known by its official name Colonia Claudia Victricensis, often shortened to Colonia Victricensis, and as Camulodunum, a Latinised version of its original Brythonic name. The town was home to a large classical temple, two theatres, several Romano-British temples, Britain's only known chariot circus, Britain's first town walls, several large cemeteries and over 50 known mosaics and tessellated pavements. It may have reached a population of 30,000 at its height. It was not until the late 18th century that historians realised that Colchester's physical Brythonic and Roman remains were the city mentioned in ancient literature as "Camulodunum".
Colchester is the main settlement within the city area of the same name in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian.
The Jewry Wall is a substantial ruined wall of 2nd-century Roman masonry, with two large archways, in Leicester, England. It stands alongside St Nicholas' Circle and St Nicholas' Church. It formed the west wall of a public building in Ratae Corieltauvorum, alongside public baths, the foundations of which were excavated in the 1930s and are also open to view. The wall gives its name to the adjacent Jewry Wall Museum.
The title of oldest town in Britain is claimed by a number of settlements in Great Britain.
Anfield Cemetery, or the City of Liverpool Cemetery, is located in Anfield, a district of Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It lies to the northeast of Stanley Park, and is bounded by Walton Lane to the west, Priory Road to the south, a railway line to the north, and the gardens of houses on Ince Avenue to the east. The cemetery grounds are included in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens at Grade II*.
The General Cemetery in the City of Sheffield, England opened in 1836 and closed for burial in 1978. It was the principal cemetery in Victorian Sheffield with over 87,000 burials. Today it is a listed Landscape on the English Heritage National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. It is also a Local Nature Reserve. It is owned by the City of Sheffield and managed on behalf of the city by a local community group, the Sheffield General Cemetery Trust.
The Silver Jubilee Bridge crosses the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal at Runcorn Gap between Runcorn and Widnes in Halton, England. It is a through arch bridge with a main arch span of 361 yards. It was opened in 1961 as a replacement for the Widnes-Runcorn Transporter Bridge. In 1975–77 the carriageway was widened, after which the bridge was given its official name in honour of the Queen's Silver Jubilee. It carries the A533 road and a cantilevered footway. The bridge is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building. The bridge was closed to vehicles for refurbishment upon the opening of the new Mersey Gateway Bridge, but reopened as a toll bridge in February 2021.
Eastgate, Chester is a permanently open gate through the Chester city walls, on the site of the original entrance to the Roman fortress of Deva Victrix in Chester, Cheshire, England. It is a prominent landmark in the city of Chester and the Eastgate clock on top of it is said to be the most photographed clock in England after Big Ben.
The A120 is an A-road in England, which runs between Puckeridge in Hertfordshire and Harwich in Essex.
Newport Arch is a 3rd-century Roman gate in the city of Lincoln, Lincolnshire. It is a Scheduled monument and Grade I listed building and is reputedly the oldest arch in the United Kingdom still used by traffic.
The Temple of Claudius or Temple of the Deified Claudius was a large octastyle temple built in Camulodunum, the modern Colchester in Essex. The main building was constructed between 49 and 60 AD, although additions were built throughout the Roman-era. Today it forms the base of the Norman Colchester Castle. It is one of at least eight Roman-era pagan temples in Colchester, and was the largest temple of its kind in Roman Britain; its current remains potentially represent the earliest existing Roman stonework in the country.
Jumbo Water Tower is a water tower at the Balkerne Gate in Colchester, Essex. Charles Clegg (c.1855-c.1904), the Borough Surveyor and Engineer, designed the structure. The tower is 40.1m tall overall and contains 1.2 million red bricks. The tower was nicknamed ’Jumbo’ after the London Zoo elephant as a term of derision in 1882 by Reverend John Irvine who was annoyed that the tower dwarfed his nearby rectory at St. Mary-at-the-Walls.
St John on the Wall in Bristol is a historic church in the care of heritage charity The Churches Conservation Trust. The upper church and its medieval vaulted crypt is located at the lower end of Broad Street and is built into the old city's medieval walls.
Garendon Hall was a country home near Shepshed, Leicestershire, England. It was demolished in 1964.
St Elphin's Church is the parish church of the town of Warrington, Cheshire, England. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Liverpool, the archdeaconry of Warrington and the deanery of Warrington.
Bridgegate in Chester, Cheshire, England, forms part of the city walls. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building.
The Northgate is in Chester, Cheshire, England, where it carries the city walls footpath over Northgate Street. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building.
The Patcham Pylon is a monumental gateway erected in 1928 near Patcham in East Sussex, England. Designed by local architect John Leopold Denman and paid for by public subscription, it commemorated the extension of the County Borough of Brighton on 1 April 1928, and stood close to the new northern boundary.
The City War Memorial, Nottingham, also known as the Nottingham Municipal War Memorial and the City of Nottingham War Memorial, is the main war memorial for the city of Nottingham in England. It comprises a memorial arch of Portland stone with three openings and wrought iron gates, and stone flanking arcades. It was unveiled in 1927 beside a new park overlooking the River Trent, and became a Grade II listed building in 1972.
Penwortham Old Bridge is a toll-free, five-span bridge over the River Ribble at Preston, Lancashire, England. A Grade II listed structure and a Scheduled monument, located about a mile southwest of the centre of the city, it crosses the river to Penwortham. Today the bridge no longer carries motorised traffic.
