Colchester: Walk With Purpose

Boudica led a rebellion against the Romans in AD 60. Her anger at the treatment of Iceni people after the death of their king Prasutagus which included the disinheritance of her daughters, turned to fury when she was flogged and her daughters were raped. She raised an army and led the Iceni from Norfolk to march on Roman Colchester. The Temple of Claudius standing where the castle is today was destroyed and the intense fires that swept across the town created a layer of archaeology known as the Boudican destruction layer.  After Colchester Boudica moved on to London and St Albans.

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Dr Ruth, or Ben as she was sometimes known, lived at The Minories with her family. She had moved to Colchester from London by 1910, first opening a medical practice on North Hill and then relocating to The Minories in 1915, where she combined consulting rooms, a nursery and living accommodation. She was unafraid to speak out and make change happen around the town. She challenged landlords to improve their properties, started antenatal classes and was instrumental in establishing Colchester Maternity Hospital.

After her death in 1957 she was described as ‘a pioneer who wrote a page of Colchester history. Fought prejudice with spirit and enthusiasm, solved problems with hard work and charm. She lived in the town for 47 years and worked for it every one of them.’

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Sophie organised a Black Lives Matter demonstration in nearby Castle Park in 2020. The peaceful demonstration was attended by hundreds of people who came to speak, listen and show solidarity after the death of George Floyd in the US.

Sophie has spoken of the courage it took to organise the event, but how important it was for her to stand up and speak out. She says “we can’t sit at home and expect change to happen without actively going out and having our voices heard.”

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Margaret was born in Colchester in 1623, part of the town’s wealthy Lucas family. She was well connected spending time at the royal court in France and marrying the Duke of Newcastle. She was a prolific writer, publishing poetry, philosophy, novels and works of science under her own name.

Some of her work explored issues of sex and gender equality in ways that appear very modern. For example, in 1668 she wrote The Convent of Pleasure, a play based around Lady Happy and her courtship of women in which she asks ‘why may I not love a woman with the same affection as I could a man?’

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Close to this spot in the 19th century were numerous clothing factories employing young women on poor wages and for long hours. The Hyams factory on Abbeygate Street still stands and was one of the first centres of mass clothing production in the country. Other companies had factories in Priory Street, Stanwell Street and St Botolph Street, at one time employing over 2500 women and girls in tailoring and dressmaking either here or from their homes. There are reports that young women were approached by men at the end of their shifts in some of these factories or even after their attendance at the Girls’ Evening Ragged School in Osbourne Street.

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Beatrice co-founded the Colchester Repertory Theatre in the High Street (now the Co-op Bank) in 1937. This professional company was the forerunner of our modern Mercury Theatre. Although Beatrice did not live to visit the Mercury in its current location, the green room in the new theatre was named after her.

Before arriving in Colchester, Beatrice was a successful performer appearing in London’s West End and she continued to act at the Rep until the managerial responsibilities took over. During the Second World War when co-founder Robert Digby was called up into the forces, Beatrice managed the theatre on her own, writing weekly programme notes to keep audiences up to date with their favourite actors and Rep tours. She left Colchester in 1942.

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In 1908 Amy visited Colchester from Tendring to speak about Votes for Women, declaring that suffrage supporters were ‘neither freaks nor frumps’. She wheeled a petition along the High Street in a wheelbarrow as part of what the press dubbed ‘the Suffragette Invasion’, all received with amusement and some jostling by the local crowd.

Amy and her Colchester born mother Lilian were members of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) set up by the Pankhursts, and while they had left in 1907 to join the Women’s Freedom League, their ideas were more militant than Colchester based suffragists who preferred peaceful and constitutional methods.

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In 1916 Catharine was the first woman to be elected to Colchester Borough Council at a time when most women were unable to vote.  She inspired others to follow and has been described as a beacon to other women in local politics.

In 1923 she was appointed Mayor of Colchester and was succeeded by Colchester’s second female mayor Dame Catherine Hunt in 1924. Catharine served as Hunt’s mayoress during this year.  In 1928 she also became the first woman on Essex County Council.

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In 1870 Josephine stayed in Colchester at one of its many pubs. She was in town to speak for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts which forcibly examined women thought to be sex workers and confined them to the lock hospital in Port Lane if they had symptoms of sexually transmitted infection.

Josephine used the 1870 Colchester by-election to raise awareness of the Acts which she felt penalised women when men were left untreated and unstigmatised. She became a target for brothel keepers who sent a mob to besiege her hotel, threatening to burn it down and attack her. Afterwards she described how she escaped with the help of the owner: ‘He said “I will get you quietly out under another name, and will find some little lodging for you.” I packed up my things, and he sent a servant with me down a little by-street to a small private house of a working-man and his wife.’

The Contagious Diseases Acts were repealed and Colchester lock hospital closed in 1886.

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Near to this place in 1557 Elizabeth and five other women and men were led from the Moot Hall in the High Street to be executed as heretics. This was a turbulent time of religious division and persecution in the country that saw many people killed for their beliefs. Elizabeth was unwilling to renounce her Protestant faith and is remembered as one of the Colchester Martyrs.

Content warning: Some viewers may find this story upsetting.