Colchester Walks and Talks

04/01/2024

This is the first blog post in a new series looking at Colchester's churches, many of which do not feature on a standard city tour.

This is the first blog post in a new series looking at Colchester's churches, many of which do not feature on a standard city tour.

31/12/2023

Happy Hogmanay to you all!

21/12/2023

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone!

14/12/2023

Authorised guide for Colchester City Council

22/11/2023

- 22 November 1922, the "North Hill Mosaic" was uncovered while digging in his garden, by AW (Abraham William) Frost a Dentist who practised in Colchester for 52 years.

The is today on display in

21/11/2023

20/11/2023

The final part of my investigation into Tymperleys is now on my blog.

In my last three blogs I have been investigating the property known as Tymperleys in Trinity Street and to try and verify various things that are said about it. You will need to read them before you carry on with this blog for it to all make sense. So far, I have worked out a lot about the history o...

18/11/2023

06/11/2023

In my latest blog my investigation into "The Mysteries of Tymperleys" continues...

In my previous two blog posts I have been investigating the property known as Tymperleys in Trinity Street and to try and verify various things that are said about it. You will need to read them before you carry on with this blog for it to all make sense. Continuing my investigation, the next resour...

23/10/2023

In this blog I continue my investigation into "The Mysteries of Tymperleys".

n my last post I set to show you how I research a stop on my tours. You will need to read it before you read this one. I chose the example of Tymperleys in Trinity Street Colchester. I looked at the buildings themselves to see what I could learn about their history from the physical evidence they pr...

09/10/2023

My latest blog post is the start of my investigation into "The Mysteries of Tymperleys".
https://www.colchesterwalksandtalks.com/post/the-mysteries-of-tymperleys-part-1

27/09/2023

🥳🐘 Happy Birthday to the biggest boy in town! Jumbo was officially opened as a water tower on this day in 1883, making it an impressive 140 years old today!

25/09/2023

My latest blog post has a peek behind the curtain of what I do.

As a tour guide it’s important for me to know as much as I can about the places I will take you on my tours. I will aim to make sure what I know is accurate and also to know more than I will usually have time on the tour to tell you or without losing your interest. If you do ask questions or want ...

11/09/2023

In my latest blog we take a stroll down Trinity Street

We are now going to leave West Stockwell Street and head south over the High Street, down the alleyway called Pelham Lane and into Trinity Street. It is another of the medieval streets that form par to the grid first laid out in the tenth century. It is full of interesting buildings and stories. The...

31/08/2023

Wow Rare Blue Super Moon spotted in Colchester last night 😍 we had to phone home about it...

28/08/2023

My latest blog post is all about the mystery of a missing church.

Further south along West Stockwell Street from St. Martin’s going up the hill towards the High Street, there is a mystery which doesn’t feature on many city tours anymore. It is a church graveyard, but it appears to have no church associated with it. The building behind was once a library which ...

20/08/2023

Its all on again today and you can find details here. https://www.visitcolchester.com/whats-on/colchester-siege-spectacular-p1861921
I’ll be in the Castle again doing tours so once again I won’t see the early skirmishes.

Re-enacting the epic Siege of Colchester in 1648, the English Civil War Society presents a wonderful free weekend of living history.

20/08/2023

I then went down into Castle Park and saw a re-enactment of the Royalists preventing the Parliamentarians entering the town during the Siege. I am just behind the safety of the town wall and looking over it.

This weekend is the 375th anniversary of the Siege of Colchester which happened during the English Civil War in the summer of 1678 and various re-enactments ...

19/08/2023

This weekend is the 375th anniversary of the Siege of Colchester which happened during the English Civil War in the summer of 1678 and various re-enactments of the skirmishes and battles between the Royalist Forces that were inside the town walls and the Parliamentarian Army that had the town besieged and encircled have been taking place today and will again tomorrow. I was doing tours of the vaults and roof of Colchester Castle during the early skirmishes, but when my shift finished at 2pm I was out in time to see the march of the Royalists down the High Street and around behind the Castle.

This weekend is the 375th anniversary of the Siege of Colchester which happened during the English Civil War in the summer of 1678 and various re-enactments ...

14/08/2023

My latest blog entry discusses the grave of Jacob Ringer's, its link to the Civil War and to how our calendar has change.

History is normally dominated by tales of kings, queens, generals, politicians and the like. We don’t often get to hear the stories of ordinary folk so today I’m going to tell you such a story and also how it reflects a major change in the way the calendar works. Just to the south of the Taylor....

07/08/2023

I've decided that my posts are a bit long for Facebook, so I've now put them all on the blog on my website. You can find the latest one which is all about the Taylor House in West Stockwell Street, and details about how you can see it on my tour this Wednesday at

We can’t leave West Stockwell Street without taking a look at Nos. 11 and 12. Between 1796 and 1811 they were the home of the Taylor family. At that time the two properties were one house and their claim to fame is an event that happened there in 1806. However, in this post, I’m not going to tel...

24/07/2023

We can’t leave East Stockwell Street in the Dutch Quarter without having a look at Peake’s House, a remarkable Grade II Listed Building which is to be found on the west side of the street near its northern end. It is named after Mr Peake who was the last owner before he generously gave it to Colchester Borough Council in 1946, specifying that it was to be used for social and cultural purposes only. It is now leased by the Landmark Trust and can be hired as a holiday let so you can stay it when you visit our city.
However, its history goes back much further than that. It is part of a mid to late 14th century hall house, some of which was demolished in 1935, making it one of the oldest houses in Colchester. The hall was remodelled around 1550 as a three-storey house. This was then merged in the early 17th century to a separate two-storey building to its north which itself was built around 1500. A rear wing was added to it in the 17th century. As weaving was an important industry here at this time, it has big widows to let light in for the weavers to work by.
It is made from durable oak beams on rubble, stone, or brick foundations. The use of brick and the size of the building shows it was built by someone very wealthy as brick was expensive back then. It is known as a “half-timbered” building. This doesn’t mean that half of it was made of wood. Half-timbered buildings were made of logs were cut in two lengthwise, or at least cut down to a square inner section. These beams were cut to size at a woodyard. All the beams were then marked to make it easy to take to the building site and assemble. They were the first prefab buildings.
Peak House is a box framed building which was the more expensive sort. It also used close studding which means that lots of vertical beams were used close together which was also expensive. The timbers were often left unpainted to weather naturally, while the panels in between were painted with pigmented limewash. The blackening is a natural aging effect. Sometimes both the beams and panels were limewashed to protect against the weather.
In the 18th century when stucco and stone finishes became fashionable, many houses had their timbers plastered over. In the 19th and 20th centuries, many houses were restored and the timbers were exposed once again. The practice of painting the beams black and panels white, in part to emphasise the intricate patterns of the timber frame, became established. Recently fashions have changed again, and now some houses have had the paint removed from beams to reveal the natural colour of the weathered wood, while the panels are limewashed in soft earth tones. It is open to the public once a year on Heritage Weekend in September and is well worth a look inside.
If you would like to visit the Dutch Quarter to see the lovely old houses there and hear their histories, please join me on one of my “Wednesday Walks through Colchester's History” The next one is this Wednesday.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1793186791110922