In Castle Park, on the path that leads to the Ryegate Road gate on the west side of the park, is what looks like a bit of thick garden wall. It is, however, something far more interesting. Colchester Castle is built on the podium of the ruined Roman Temple of Claudius, built here the 1st century AD. The Castle had a defensive earth bank around it which can still be seen on the north and east sides of the Castle. It is known as the ramparts and would originally have had a stone wall on top.
The piece of wall we are interested in sticks out the end of the remains of the north rampart which indicates it must be older which indeed it is. The Temple was surrounded by a precinct, possibly used as the Forum area of the Roman city, It was surrounded on three sides by a gallery, possibly with shops and other buildings inside it. Across the south side at the front was a magnificent entrance building which linked the two sides of the precinct together.
The Normans used the precinct and front façade as the foundations of their ramparts. The wall we are looking at here is part of the remains of the temple wall. The Victorians punched through it when they laid out Castle Park in 1892 which damaged it. However, this bit survived and most likely continues under the rampart, so every day people walk past something that has been there almost 2000 years.