Mums Adventures in the Uk: Out and About with Sue

Sue meet me at Colchester Station on Monday afternoon along with her daughter Jade and Jade's boy friend. Wow is she dainty, I had always thought my sister in law was tiny, Sue beat her hands down, she is like a china doll, looks like you could blow her over with on breath. Sue is a lovely person, kind who obviously adores her children and pets. Jades dog Cotton is the noisy one, barks a lot though loves her cuddles, Murphy has the cutest of faces and very playful.

Outside Colchester Castle

The main entrance to the castle and estate.

Roman Temple remains

For my children.....the grey squirrel were all over the place and rather friendly too

Old Roman Wall in the castle grounds

A view from the castle

More of the Roman Temple ruins

As you know from my last post Halstead is built on 4 hills, the church mentioned is around 700 years old, that was something Sue mentioned to me on the Thursday. It is a good 15 - 20 minute walk into Halstead High Street from Sue's house, the days though cold were bright though it rained most evenings.

On Wednesday we went into Colchester for the day, talk about an old place, Sue told me it dated back to Roman times (hope I got this right)

*Colchester Castle is actualy built on top of the ruins of a Roman Temple of Claudius. The keep which is said to be the biggest ever built was started in 1076 under the supervison of the Bishop of Rochester. The Normans sacked Colchester which had been the first Roman Capital of Britain for the stone to build the keep due to a lack of good local building stone.

The castle was used as a gaol for long periods of time. In 1727 Charles Grey was gifted teh castle as a wedding present, it was this gentleman who had it restored though apparently he thought it was of Roman construction.

*this info is from the following link. http://www.cimuseums.org.uk/venues/colchester-castle-museum/history.html

I only have photos of the outside of Colchester Castle, you can see some of the Temple foundations, as well as where the castle had been restored. Apparetnly the castle is due to close in January 2013 and re-open at Easter 2014 after it has been transformed.

Next we visited Hollytrees Museum which is a five minute walk away, this three story family home was built by Thomas Blagden a London builder this house was originally built for Elizabeth Cornelison of Camberwll who sadly died before the house was finished. The house was passed on to Sarah Creffeild who later married the Charles Grey who was gifted the castle. This family lived here for many years. Charles did much work on his estate, landscaping, restoring the castle and also adding the Hollytree's which give the house its name. If you look at the above website you can retrieve more history about this muesum.

I forgot to get some photos of the house, however I thought I would post this which was in the enterance to the museum.

Thenext few photographs are of Colchester City, some of the old buildings, including the old Water Tower which Sue mentioned was goinging to be turned into a home, if it is then it will be a spectacular view.