The Legacy of the Terrible and Awful Siege of Colchester 1648

375 years ago, England experienced one of its worst sieges in its history. In 1648 Colchester was sieged by the Parliamentarian forces during the British Civil War which led to residents eating cats and dogs. As Colchester now looks back at its history in a year of historical spectacles, the conflict is becoming quite the talking point. To add to the conversation, our historian Michael Sewell will briefly discuss the events preceding and during to see how Colchester fared in this terrible time. But he will focus his attention to the immediate impact and legacy of the war in the preceding centuries. How has Colchester dealt with the destruction? Who controlled the narrative? Does the story of Humpty Dumpty really come from Colchester? Can we truly trust the accounts from the siege? Michael will answer these questions and more in this special talk on Colchester’s terrible siege.
Cover Image Attribution: British Library, 2390. (1.) The siege of Colchester by the Lord Fairfax, as it was with the Line and Outworks, 1648; [with] a diary of the siege of Colchester by the forces under … Gen. Fairfax. London : T. Witham, c. 1650.