Tickets are £10 and must be bought in advance. Cheques payable to ‘Colchester Archaeological Trust’ can be sent to Darius Laws at 12 Lexden Road, Colchester, CO3 3NF or contact him at loveromancolchester@hotmail.co.uk.

Football fans at Colchester United v Oldham last Saturday showed their support for the Roman Circus appeal by donating £1084.

Fans were treated to the sight of a Roman charioteer parading around the edge of the pitch with this two horses. Professional film stuntman Andy Butcher donated his time to help the appeal make an impact with football fans.

He was joined by a band of volunteers with buckets collecting from the fans, together with the doughty Jess Jephcott in full Roman soldier costume.

The crowd was very supportive and many of them wished the volunteers well with the campaign.

On the day we were delighted to hear that football legend Terry Venables had given his support to the Roman Circus Appeal.

So, thank you to Colchester United for all the help and support. They’ve been featuring the Roman Circus appeal on their big screen at all their home matches this year. And thank you to the many people who gave on the day.

Author Caroline Lawrence and actress Millie Binks gave a fascinating presentation on Friday at Colchester Arts Centre about life in Roman Britain. The half-term event proved popular with children and families from Colchester and further afield, all of whom enjoyed a free book from The Roman Mysteries series. The event has raised hundreds of pounds and brought us even closer to our target, as we enter the final week of the event.

Thank you to Colchester Arts Centre, and to Millie and to Caroline for giving up their time. Caroline is a patron of the appeal, and has worked incredibly hard using her contacts and her Twitter account to promote the Roman Circus appeal.

Caroline has already received some very positive feedback from members of the Colchester audience on her fanmail page.

There are three ways in which you can use the service.

1. Make an online credit or debit card donation. Justgiving will collect the Gift Aid element, if appropriate, boosting the value of the gift by 28%. The site now takes donations via Paypal too. You can make a one-off donation or monthly gifts.

2. Set up a fundraising page to collect sponsorship money for a sponsored run, walk, silence or whatever you want to do.

You can see an example of one already created for the appeal by Paddy and his friends.

3. Create an in memoriam page to raise funds in memory of a loved one or friend.

All income via Justgiving will for the time being be credited to the Roman Circus appeal, not to Colchester Archaelogical Trust’s general funds.

Over 8 million people have given to UK charities via Justgiving, so the chances are you are familiar with the site and its service.

Justgiving does of course charge a fee for running this secure service, handling donations and Gift Aid claims, and offering customer service to charities and to donors. This is 5% of the total sum, including any Gift Aid added. So, a donation by a UK tax-payer of £100 would be worth £128 with Gift Aid, and Justgiving would charge a fee of 5% of that £128.

Credit and debit card issuers also levy a charge.

If you’d like to donate online without paying a fee, beyond those charged by the credit and debit card companies, then please use our Charity Choice facility. This does not offer the regular gifts, fundraising pages or in memoriam pages of Justgiving.

After announcing the Justgiving page at the end of last week, we’ve received £190 in donations over the weekend plus £47.50 in Gift Aid, a total of £237.50.

The Romans are coming!

Two members of Portals to the Past, who run popular history workshops for schools throughout the region will be appearing at Colchester library.

Come and join Vulpus the Barbarian, Roman gladiator and Marcus Flavius Facillus, Roman centurion, as they bring history alive.  Explore their world and listen to their stories about the Roman conquest, Boudicca’s revolt and Roman chariot racing.

Tuesday 16^th February 10.00am to 12.00pm free at the library.  Donations to the appeal will be gratefully accepted.

The Roman Mysteries with Caroline Lawrence

A multimedia show from Caroline Lawrence, the children’s author of the hugely successful Roman Mysteries books and television series.

Caroline will give a fascinating insight into a day at a Roman Circus, describing the sights, sounds and emotions of a day at the chariot races. She will also be screening an excerpt from the CBBC series The Roman Mysteries, and Millie Binks, who played the character of Pulchra will also be appearing.

Friday 19^th February 2.00pm.  Tickets are £6 each and include a free signed Roman Mysteries book.  Most suitable for children aged 7 and up.  Tickets available from The Arts Centre Colchester www.colchesterartscentre.com or 01206 500900

Secret Circus Treasure Trail

Join firstsite to discover the secrets of the Roman Circus by following a tremendous treasure trail through Colchester town centre.

This event features a fabulous trail devised by artist Jevan Watkins Jones which allows families to interact with some of the unusual history or stories from the past.

Saturday 20^th February, drop into firstsite any time between 11.00am – 1.00pm  and 2.00pm – 4.00pm.  This is a free event.  Donations to the appeal will be gratefully accepted.

Next week also sees architectural historian Dan Cruickshank’s lunch in Dedham and lecture in Colchester on 16 February, and a fundraising collection (for which we still need volunteers) at Colchester United’s football ground on 20 February from 1 – 5.30pm.

Join us and artist Jevan Watkins Jones to discover the secrets of the Roman Circus by following a fascinating treasure trail through Colchester town centre, designed to enable families to interact with some of the unusual history and stories from the past.

There’s no charge for this event, but donations to the Roman Circus Appeal will be welcomed.

For further information on this event go to www.firstsite.uk.net. You can also download the treasure trail leaflet (PDF).

We’re delighted to report that the Dine Like A Roman feast event tomorrow night is sold out.

The event is being put on in aid of the appeal by Don Quinn of Snake in the Grass Ltd. We shall let you know how much it raised. Meanwhile, we’re looking forward to a very enjoyable night of food, drink and entertainment tomorrow night.

We’ve got other events coming up, and we need them with the extended deadline for the appeal falling one month away today. We’ll publish details as soon as venues and timings are confirmed, but we can tell you that they involve some of our well-known patrons visiting Colchester, and there will be events and activities for children over half-term.

Snake in the Grass’ event was put on for the appeal, rather than by the appeal’s volunteer committee. Do you have some fundraising ideas? If so, we’re setting up a Justgiving.com account to make it easy for you to collect the funds quickly and easily. More on that soon too.

Image: jspatchwork on Flickr.com

If you don’t want to wear Roman clothes, you could wear something in the colours of the different chariot racing teams.

Find out more in our downloadable guide (PDF) to what to wear on a non-uniform day.

Already, The Lemon Tree in St John’s Street, Colchester, has announced that it will be offering a special menu throughout February for “Love Roman Colchester”, and it will donate to the appeal an amount from each set meal sold.

There is more to come of course, and we’ll share it with you here, on the email newsletter, and via the Facebook group. But you’re welcome to put on your own events to celebrate “Love Roman Colchester” month. Tell us about them and we’ll feature them here.

Also, we haven’t yet put together a logo for the theme of “Love Roman Colchester” month. If there are any talented designers out there who would like to submit an idea, we’ll gladly give them credit and kudos if we select their design. Sorry, we don’t plan to pay for the logo. But it could end up on a mug, t-shirt etc.

To submit, either upload your design to Flickr.com and send us the link or email it to us. We’d like to showcase them on our Flickr space, so include any blurb and web links you’d like us to include below your image.

Gallery Schomberg at 12 St John’s Street, Colchester, will run tombola for the appeal on Saturday, the last day of its exhibition and sale. They will also be serving hot Indian chai for the occasion together with home made almond cookies.

Are you organising a fundraising event or activity for the appeal? Do let us know and we’ll feature it on this website.