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Why Britain's Oldest Recorded Town?

The earliest record of the town’s existence is a reference by the Roman writer, Pliny the Elder in AD77. In describing the island of Anglesey, he wrote that ‘it is about 200 miles from Camulodunum, a town in Britain’.

Camulodunum being the pre-Roman name for Colchester. This is the first known reference to any named settlement in this country.

Pliny, shown on the right in a medieval manuscript illustration, died in AD79, one of the victims of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius which destroyed Pompeii.