Market Place, Anchor Hill

 

Market Place, Anchor Hill

Pat Marsden

 

Market Place, Anchor Hill

Pat Marsden

 

The Cage at Wivenhoe from the Essex Telegraph

Wivenhoe Memories Collection

The High Street, West Street and East Street all run into Anchor Hill and there is a short lane down to the Quay.  This area in one of the earliest parts of the town is believed to be the original mediaeval market place.  There was some infilling of the market place with the building of the Old Bakehouse in the sixteenth century.  Nicholas Butler refers to the stocks, whipping post and cage (a small lock-up) almost certainly sited on Anchor Hill, the cage still being there in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

References

Anon, ‘The Cage’, Essex Review, vii, 255 (1898)
Butler, N., ‘The Story of Wivenhoe’, (1989), p11
Historic Environment Records (SMR 19781)
Medlycott, M., Wivenhoe ‘Historic Town Assessment Report’ (1999)

As described on the Wivenhoe Local List, adopted by Colchester Borough Council in March 2012.