The Development of Telecoms - Colchester
Colchester makes claim to be the oldest town recorded in British history and much of its massive Roman wall still stands. Colchester has connection with Shakespeare's Cymbeline, Queen Boadicea, King Cole (of nursery rhyme fame) and the Civil War. Its Castle is the largest Norman keep in the country and is constructed largely of Roman building materials; the Castle houses a museum with an exceptionally fine collection of Roman remains among which are two amphorae (storage jars) discovered four years ago when excavating for the foundations and basement of the extended Colchester exchange.
Along the 60 miles of coastline are many well-known holiday resorts such as Clacton, Frinton, Walton-on-Naze and Felixstowe. Yachting enthusiasts are catered for at Brightlingsea, West Mersea, Pinmill and Wivenhoe. At Wivenhoe, shipbuilding has been in progress since the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
The Oyster Feast for which Colchester is famous and which was founded in antiquity, has been revived in recent years in full splendour. Engineering works at Colchester give employment to many, but the main industrial activities of the area are centred at Ipswich.
The 350th anniversary of the death of Colchester's most distinguished son William Gilberd has recently been observed. He was physician-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth I, but his fame rests on his exhaustive and original treatise on magnetism published in 1600.
The bulk of the territory is given over to agriculture and fruit growing. Many of the scenes made familiar by the paintings of John Constable and Thomas Gainsborough are to be found in this area, within whose confines both men were born.
Aldeburgh, in the north east corner of the area, which is widely known for its annual festival of Music and the Arts, is also the landing point of Anglo-Dutch cables.
Colchester is the headquarters of the area which covers parts of the counties of Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk and is of 1,311 square miles in extent. Its 110 exchanges, 81 of them automatic, serve 34,542 subscribers' connections with 53,017 stations. The staff total is 779.
