User:Stortford/Colchester

Colchester is a city and local government district in Essex, England. The city boundaries extend beyond the built-up area, and also include the towns of West Mersea and Wivenhoe and the surrounding rural areas stretching from Dedham Vale on the Suffolk border in the north to Mersea Island in the Colne Estuary in the south. It had a population of 192,715 in 2021, of which 130,245 lived in the main built-up area. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colchester therefore claims to have been Britain's first city, although formal city status was only conferred on it in 2022. It has been an important military base since the Roman era, with Colchester Garrison currently housing the 16th Air Assault Brigade.

On the River Colne, Colchester is 50 mi northeast of London. It is connected to London by the A12 road and the Great Eastern Main Line railway. Colchester is less than 30 mi from London Stansted Airport and 20 mi from the port of Harwich.

Attractions in and around the city include St Botolph's Priory, Colchester Zoo, and several art galleries. Colchester Castle was constructed in the eleventh century on earlier Roman foundations; it now contains a museum. The main campus of the University of Essex is at Wivenhoe Park. Local government is the responsibility of Colchester City Council and Essex County Council.

Name
(from current Colchester page)

History
(from current Colchester page - but minus the comments explaining why the district population appearing in the source isn't relevant to the article)

Climate
(from current Colchester page)

Garrison
(from current Colchester page)

Governance
(New wording below to strip out the material on the current Colchester page dealing with the political make-up of the city council which I don't think belongs at Colchester anyway, being duplicated at City of Colchester (where it's more likely to be kept up to date) - under my proposal that page City of Colchester page would move to Colchester City Council. A summary of the administrative history from City of Colchester added here though for context.)

There are two principal tiers of local government covering Colchester, at district (city) and county level: Colchester City Council, based at Colchester Town Hall, and Essex County Council based in Chelmsford. Parts of the city, particularly covering the outlying more rural areas, are also covered by civil parishes, which form a third tier of local government.

Colchester was an ancient borough, with the earliest known borough charter dating from 1189. The borough was reformed in 1836 to become a municipal borough.

The Colchester local government district in its modern form was created on 1 April 1974, when the old municipal borough was abolished and a new non-metropolitan district created covering its area and the neighbouring Lexden and Winstree Rural District and urban districts of West Mersea and Wivenhoe, which were also abolished. The expanded district retained Colchester's borough status, allowing the council to take the name "Colchester Borough Council". As part of the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II celebrations in 2022, the borough of Colchester was granted city status, confirmed by Letters Patent dated 5 September 2022, allowing the council to change its name to "Colchester City Council".

Town Hall on High Street is an Edwardian baroque edifice designed by John Belcher. It was completed in 1902 and is the latest in a series of local government buildings to have stood on the same site since the 12th century. The 162-foot clock tower was presented by James Paxman; it is topped by a figure of St Helena, who is linked by legend to the area.

The Member of Parliament for Colchester is Will Quince of the Conservative Party. The former MP, Liberal Democrat Sir Bob Russell, has held the ceremonial role of High Steward of Colchester since 2015.

Demography
(At the moment the Colchester page has a Demography heading which just contains a link to the Demography section on the City of Colchester page. The material there is a mix of 2008 and 2011 data so needs updating, but in principle use this space for demography for the whole district.)

Culture
(from current Colchester page)

Landmarks
(from current Colchester page)

Education
(from current Colchester page, but with addition of any secondary schools in the outer parts of the district not already covered)

Tertiary
The University of Essex is located at Wivenhoe Park on the eastern side of the city. Other tertiary institutions include Colchester Sixth Form College and Colchester Institute.

Transport
(from current Colchester page)

Parishes
(largely copied from the City of Colchester page)

There are 35 civil parishes within the city boundaries, mostly covering the more rural areas surrounding the main built-up area. The area of the pre-1974 Colchester Municipal Borough is an unparished area (subject to some adjustments to that area's boundaries with neighbouring parishes). The parish councils of Wivenhoe and West Mersea take the style "town council". Some of the smaller parishes are grouped together to share a parish council: Abberton and Langenhoe Parish Council covers those two parishes, and the Winstred Hundred Parish Council covers the four parishes of Great and Little Wigborough, Peldon, Salcott, and Virley. The two parishes of Layer Breton and Layer Marney have parish meetings rather than parish councils due to their small populations.


 * Abberton
 * Aldham
 * Birch
 * Boxted
 * Chappel
 * Copford
 * Dedham
 * East Donyland
 * East Mersea
 * Eight Ash Green
 * Fingringhoe
 * Fordham
 * Great and Little Wigborough
 * Great Horkesley
 * Great Tey
 * Langenhoe
 * Langham
 * Layer Breton
 * Layer de la Haye
 * Layer Marney
 * Little Horkesley
 * Marks Tey
 * Messing-cum-Inworth
 * Mount Bures
 * Myland
 * Peldon
 * Salcott
 * Stanway
 * Tiptree
 * Virley
 * Wakes Colne
 * West Bergholt
 * West Mersea (town)
 * Wivenhoe (town)
 * Wormingford

References in literature
(from current Colchester page - although could probably be merged with the section below)

In popular culture
(from current Colchester page - albeit this section needs some attention as being largely minor trivia)

Colcestrians
(from current Colchester page)

Twin towns
(from current Colchester page)