Colchester, the Essex port, home to the members of the band Blur, is also the oldest recorded town in Britain (dating back to AD 43). Formally Camulodunum, the town was the capital of Roman Britain, and during the English Civil War (1642 – 1651), possibly introduced the world to Humpty Dumpty.

Colchester had a defensive castle, many churches and of course an impressive city wall. The Royalist defenders of the city, supporters of Charles I, were besieged by the Parliamentary troops in 1648 in what became known as the Siege of Colchester.

For 11 weeks, One-Eyed Thompson, the gunner of the large cannon, playfully called Humpty Dumpty, managed to defend the city from the tower of the church of St Mary-at-the-Wall. (‘Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall’)

Sadly, a Parliamentary cannon damaged the wall beneath Humpty Dumpty, and in a dramatic turn of events, the cannon tumbled to the ground outside city walls. (‘Humpty Dumpty had a great fall’)

The Royalist cavalry, (‘All the King’s horses…’) and the infantry (‘..and all the King’s men’)  did all they could to recover the cannon from the marshland outside of the city walls, but because the cannon was so heavy, it was all in vein. (‘…couldn’t put Humpty together again.’)

So where does the ‘egg’ come from?

In 1871 Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass gave the world the famous illustration (by John Tenniel) of Alice talking to an egg-shaped Humpty sitting on a high wall.

And this just stuck….

Dawn Denton©

www.traveltrales.wordpress.com

Image Sources: www.etsy.com & www.albertjack.com