BARRACKS
Troops, often en route to the Continent, were
billetted in Colchester from the late 17th century. (fn. 90) In 1794 local innkeepers, concerned by
the growing expense of the practice, petitioned
the corporation for barracks to be built in the
town and in the same year the first infantry
barracks were built on 4 a. to the south-east. (fn. 91)
By 1800 additional infantry barracks, artillery,
and cavalry barracks had been built on an adjoining 21 a., the whole bordered by Magdalen
street (later Barrack Street) on the north, Wimpole Lane on the west, and Port Lane on the
east. (fn. 92) In 1805 the barracks could accommodate
over 7,000 officers and men and 400 horses.
Much of the building was done by Thomas
Neill. (fn. 93)
The Barracks, 1856
After the Napoleonic Wars the barracks were
reduced. (fn. 94) When the disposal of barrack buildings began in 1816 the only people in the artillery
barracks were 1 barrack serjeant and 12 patients
in the hospital. (fn. 95) Buildings, fixtures, and fittings
of the cavalry barracks were sold in 1818. (fn. 96) The
sale of the older barracks and the freehold site
on which they stood started in March 1817 but
was not, for technical reasons, completed until
1840. (fn. 97) In 1818 the government paid £5,000 for
the continued use of 14 a. on which stood
infantry barracks with accommodation for 51
officers, 800 men, and 16 horses. Those were the
only barracks left in Colchester by 1821 when
they were occupied by up to 16 officers and 602
men. (fn. 98) The government also retained Barrack
field, 23 a. south of the barracks bought for an
exercise field in 1805, and the Ordnance field,
32 a. west of the barracks between Military and
Mersea Roads in St. Botolph's parish bought in
1806. (fn. 99) The 14 a. of land used in 1818 was given
up before 1836, but leased again in 1856 for a
temporary exercise ground. (fn. 1) In July 1856, when
10,000 men of the German Legion occupied the
barracks, 2,000 of them were housed under
canvas on Barrack field. Between 1865 and 1878
the army allowed the Colchester and East Essex
Cricket club to use part of the field; in 1885 the
field was leased to the town as a recreation
ground. (fn. 2)
BARRACK AND ARMY LAND WITHIN THE BOROUGH c.1953
In 1855 and 1856 wooden huts, intended as
temporary infantry barracks for 5,000 men, were
erected on the Ordnance field by Lucas Bros. (fn. 3)
Laundry rooms and schoolrooms were included
in the original provision. By 1857 there was a
large reading room and 48 small rooms for
married soldiers. (fn. 4) In the same year, because of
the inconvenience of holding military exercises
at Wivenhoe Park, the government bought
Middlewick farm, 167 a. in St. Giles's parish
south of the barracks, as a rifle range and drill
ground; 20 a. in the parishes of East Donyland
and St. Giles were added to the Middlewick
range in 1874; and between 1889 and 1899 the
range expanded with the aquisition of over 500
a. in the parishes of St. Giles, St. Botolph, East
Donyland, and Fingringhoe. All the land lay
south of the town. (fn. 5) The purchase of St. John's
farm and the Abbey gardens in 1860 added 156
a. to the barrack land. (fn. 6) Between 1862 and 1864
brick-built cavalry barracks for c. 2,500 men
were erected in Butt Road. In 1858 and 1859
accommodation for army families was provided
in rented cottages at the Hythe; from 1859
houses in Black Boy Lane were rented until
permanent married quarters were built in 1862
on another 18 a. acquired south of the Abbey
gardens. A gymnasium was built on the same
site. (fn. 7) During the early 1870s the garrison was
further enlarged by the building of artillery
barracks, later named Le Cateau, north of the
cavalry barracks; the parade ground lay between
the infantry barracks on the east and those of the
cavalry and artillery on the west. (fn. 8) Between 1900
and 1902 Goojerat and Sabraon barracks were
built on the southern edge of the camp on part
of the land of Barn Hall farm, 19 a. of which was
acquired in 1899. (fn. 9) Between 1896 and 1904 the
old wooden huts on the Ordnance field were
replaced by the brick buildings of Hyderabad
and Meeanee barracks. (fn. 10) In 1866 Colchester
became the headquarters of the newly created
Eastern District; to accommodate the General
Officer Commanding Eastern District the government rented Scarletts, an estate abutting the
southern edge of the recreation ground, from
1885. (fn. 11) In 1904 the government bought Reed
Hall and Bee Hive farms, comprising together
785 a. south-west of the garrison. (fn. 12) In 1914,
when between 30,000 and 40,000 men were in
training in Colchester, wooden huts were put up
at Reed Hall. A military airfield was established
on several acres of land at Blackheath; after the
war it was transferred to Friday Wood. (fn. 13) Between 1926 and 1933 large areas of Berechurch
parish, including Berechurch Hall, were bought
for the army. (fn. 14) During the 1930s Kirkee and
McMunn barracks were built at Reed Hall;
Roman Way and Cherry Tree camps were established south-east of the main camp. In 1939
emergency barracks were built on various sites
in the garrison area including the Abbey field,
at Blackheath, and at Berechurch. (fn. 15)
In the 1950s, because of the increasing difficulties caused by the movements of large numbers
of troops and military vehicles, including helicopters, so close to the town, plans were made
for a more acceptable and efficient use of the
5,000 a. which the War Department owned
south of the town. (fn. 16) A plan to concentrate the
barracks further from the town, south of the
Abbey field area, and to dispose of surplus land
including the Abbey field, was accepted in
1962. (fn. 17) Hyderabad and Meeanee barracks, modernized between 1958 and 1961, remained
unchanged; (fn. 18) Roman barracks were built in 1962
adjoining Roman Way camp on the south; (fn. 19)
Goojerat barracks, rebuilt between 1970 and
1975, became the headquarters of the 19 Airportable Brigade formerly based in wooden huts
at Cherry Tree camp, a site then offered to other
government departments. (fn. 20) Sabraon Barracks,
last used in 1960, were demolished in 1971. (fn. 21) Le
Cateau and Cavalry barracks, whose demolition
was planned in 1962, were still partially occupied
in 1990. (fn. 22) In the 1980s army houses in Lethe
Grove and Homefield Road were vacated and
the sites sold for private development. (fn. 23)
In 1804 land in Military Road was bought as
a military burial ground; in 1856 the garrison
church, a timber-built, slate-roofed building for
1,500 men, opened on the site. The church was
restored in 1891, the work perhaps including the
replacement of the original slate roof by one of
tarred felt, and again in 1989 when the roof was
reslated. (fn. 24)
A hospital was built for the barracks in 1797,
possibly the one, south-east of the Napoleonic
barracks, which was sold in 1818. (fn. 25) An artillery
hospital, in a house on the north side of Barrack
Street which was bought by the army in 1804,
had two new wings added during the Napoleonic
wars and was sold in 1824. (fn. 26) In 1856 the infantry
barracks on the Ordnance field included 24
hospital huts for 216 patients. (fn. 27) An officer's hut
was adapted for use as a lying-in hospital in
1870. (fn. 28) In 1873 the individual regimental hospitals were centralized into one camp hospital in
huts in the north-east corner of the infantry
barracks; (fn. 29) a brick ward for serious cases was
added in 1888. (fn. 30) The hutted hospital closed in
1896 when a new brick-built hospital of five
blocks for 221 patients was opened south of the
Abbey field. (fn. 31) In 1974 Victoria House, a residential block for 100 staff, was added. (fn. 32) The building
ceased to function as a hospital in 1978, but a
medical reception station was later housed in the
main block. By 1990 the most easterly wing of
the building had been demolished. (fn. 33)
HALF YEAR LANDS AND PARISH BOUNDARIES
Although a temporary building for military
offenders was set up in the south-west corner of
the hutted camp in 1857, (fn. 34) handcuffed soldiers
were marched through the town, apparently to
Colchester prison, after an incident in the town
in 1858. (fn. 35) In 1871 a permanent prison was built
to house 47 prisoners in individual cells. Designated a military prison in 1897, (fn. 36) it was modernized
in 1901 to include a laundry and gymnasium,
and extended to take another 16 prisoners and
by 1908 the buildings had a fully qualified staff
and an armoury. In 1913 the prisoners were
engaged in a variety of activities including bridge
building and signalling. The prison closed in
1924, and by 1937 each barracks had its own
certified detention rooms. During the Second
World War hutments at Reed Hall were used as
detention barracks. A camp of nissen huts was
established at Berechurch Hall in 1943 for Italian prisoners of war. It was used for German
and Austrian prisoners in 1944 and included a
Roman Catholic seminary where 120 priests
were trained; in 1947 it became the 19 Military
Corrective Establishment, later the Military
Corrective Training Camp. The nissen huts
were replaced in 1988 by a new prison which in
1990 was the only remaining military prison in
Britain. (fn. 37)
From 1854 barracks of the East Essex Regiment of militia, later the East Essex Rifles, were
in the building and on grounds of the former
county goal on Ipswich Road, c. 1 mile east of
the town; the barracks were offered for sale in
1881. (fn. 38)
Headquarters for the Volunteers, subsequently
the Territorial Army, were opened in Stanwell
street in 1887. The building was replaced in 1964
by a new one at the corner of Butt Road and
Goojerat Road. (fn. 39)