Colchester
[key], city and district, Essex, SE England, on the Colne River. The city
is a grain and cattle market. The oyster fisheries of the Colne are
important; an annual event is the October oyster feast. Other industries are
flour milling, malting, and the making of boilers, gas engines, shoes,
clothing, and farm machinery. Colchester was one of the great cities of
pre-Roman Britain, the capital of the ruler Cunobelin (Shakespeare's
Cymbeline). It became an important Roman colony and was the particular
object of attack (a.d. 61) by Boadicea. To the Anglo-Saxons the place
was known as Colneceaster. The witenagemot met there in 931. During
the English civil
war, the town was taken (1648) after a long siege by
parliamentarians under Baron Fairfax of Cameron. Of interest are the
preserved Roman walls and the massive Norman castle, part of which houses a
museum of Roman antiquities. Colchester has a military base.
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