In AD77 a Roman writer by the name of Pliny the Elder described the location of the Isle of Anglesey as being 'about 200 miles from Camulodunum, a town in Britain'. This was the Roman name for Colchester and is the earliest known reference to a fixed settlement in Britain, hence the claim to be Britain's oldest recorded town. Colchester town walls incorporate Britain’s largest Roman gateway, the Balkerne gate, a magnificent triumphal arch. Some two thirds of this wall still stands and is the oldest town wall in Britain.
During the English Civil War in 1648, the town was besieged by Oliver Cromwell's Parliamentarian army for 11 weeks. Colchester Castle still bears the marks of this siege.