Colchester

Colchester


Colchester is Britain’s oldest recorded town (known as Camulodunum). Its Roman heritage includes the ruins and sites of a fortress, port and temple. Meanwhile Colchester Castle houses Europe's largest Norman Keep. Not only does it offer a rich history and heritage, but also child friendly modern attractions. The most popular recreational attractions are Hollytrees Museum, Colchester Zoo and East Anglian Railway Museum.

Venues in this location

The Handsam SchoolTripsAdvisor map shows the current listings featured below. It will update as you navigate through the pages if more than 25 listings are related. Clicking on circle with a number will make the map zoom in to show the individual items.Click on any place marker to view details of that venue

Hasty's Farm

Hasty’s Adventure Park occupies five hectares of agricultural and grassland by Clacton Airfield.

Nottage Maritime Institute

The museum is located in a former sail loft and is part of the Nottage Maritime Institute which aims to improve nautical, sailing and navigation skills. There is a fine collection of paintings, personal possessions, photographs and models all with local connections to the River Colne and its fishing, yachting and boat-building heritage.

Harwich Maritime Museum

Housed in the Low Lighthouse, an 1818 construction with commanding views over the harbour and its unending movements, Harwich's Maritime Museum reveals the town's vast maritime history.

Harwich Redoubt Fort

A circular fort commanding the eastern side of Harwich port. It was built between 1807 and 1809 to support Landguard Fort on the opposite shore near Felixstowe and to form part of the chain of Martello Tower defences.

FSC Flatford Mill

Explore Constable Country

Flatford lies in the heart of the beautiful Dedham Vale.

Essex Wildlife Trust Schools Outreach and Forest School

Essex Wildlife Trust works in a wide range of ways to teach children (and adults) about the natural world to ensure that wildlife remains a priority for future generations.

Essex Wildlife Trust Fingringhoe Wick Visitor Centre and Nature Reserve

It offers the visitor real peace and quiet and a chance to escape from it all. A wide range of habitats are on view here, including grassland, heathland and ponds.

Essex Wildlife Trust Abberton Reservoir Nature Reserve and Visitor Centre

A wetland site of international importance for wildfowl. Up to 40,000 ducks, swans and geese visit each year. Excellent bird watching opportunities and fabulous views over the reservoir.

Anglia Tours

The Specialist School HIstory Travel Company

Anglia Tours Ltd specialises in high quality fully guided tours to a range of locations in the UK and across Europe, particularly battlefields and historic sites. Each tour is led by a highly experienced guide, selected not only for their expertise but also their ability to engage with audiences and to share their enthusiasm for the sites we visit.

ABTA & ATOL bonded

Essex Wildlife Trust

Essex Wildlife Trust is the county’s leading conservation charity. It has more than 32,000 members, manages and protects over 7,250 acres of land on 87 nature reserves and 2 nature parks and runs 9 visitor centres. The aim of Essex Wildlife Trust is to Protect Wildlife for the Future.

Essex Outdoors Mersea

Situated on Mersea Island on the river Blackwater near Colchester, our site at Mersea is Essex Outdoors' largest centre for outdoor learning. With over 62 acres of well maintained grounds we can accommodate up to 350 visitors in tents, 104 in cabins and 48 in its brand new residential centre. 

Thorington Hall

Rambling Suffolk farmhouse built around 1600

Thorington Hall is one of the best timber-framed houses in Suffolk. Building phases determine its unusual shape and it may also be because adjoining buildings have since been demolished. The staggered roofline, for example, shows the difference between the 1630 house and 1700 extension.

East Anglian Railway Museum

The EARM is a living heritage site based at Chappel railway station. We are situated on the edge of breathtaking Constable Country and adjacent to one of the largest railway viaducts in Eastern England.

Clacton Pier

A great trip out packed with happy!

Clacton Pier is home to a whole range of attractions. It is a modern, relatively vibrant amusement park and theme park combined into one big attraction. Clacton Pier is almost unique in the sense that there are some rides as you first enter and then the rest are dotted throughout the length of the pier. So you can just dip in and out of the fairground part of the pier.

Mistley Towers

Two porticoed Classical towers, which stood at each end of a grandiose but highly unconventional Georgian church, designed by Robert Adam in 1776.

Mistley is a building of considerable architectural significance – one of only two churches designed by Robert Adam, whose client was Richard Rigby of Mistley Hall.

Abberton Reservoir

Our fantastic new Visitor Centre offers a modern base for your visit. Discover a wide range of Environmental Education programmes and also visit the nearby water treatment works to learn about the water cycle.

EYFS: 

Exploring Senses, Pond Power, Go on a Bug Hunt, Teddy Bears Picnic, Natural Art

Key Stage 1:

Abbotts Hall Farm

Visit our working arable farm to learn about food production and sustainable farming methods to help our farmland wildlife. Find different habitats and understand the effects of breaching the sea wall and the salt marsh created.

Adapted for KS1-4:

FARMING AND WILDLIFE...

Fingringhoe Wick Visitor Centre

Fingringhoe Wick is one of the county’s top wildlife sites. Uncover the secrets of woodlands, meadows, ponds, heathland and the Colne Estuary. Our varied hands-on Environmental Education programme caters to all ages, from bug hunts for the early years to vegetation sampling for secondary pupils. 

EYFS: 

Melford Hall

Discover the stories behind this eclectic home.

It’s fair to say that Melford Hall has had its share of trials and tribulations, but it’s thanks to many generations from medieval monks to the Hyde Parker family who still live here, that this home still stands.

Colchester Zoo

Discover over 270 species...

Here are just some of the attractions here at Colchester Zoo:

Copt Hall Marshes

Get the wildlife 'wow' on the Essex Coast

Under leaden skies with a face full of wind there's nowhere like Copt Hall for refreshing the mind and blowing away the cobwebs.

Huathe - Bourne Wood

By offering a variety of experiences in the outdoors - from Family Forest Days to Forest School Leadership and from targeted Forest Schools to  courses and special events- we engage a wide variety of people, to re-connect them to nature, and infuse them with our passion for the world around us. 

Walton and Frinton Yacht Club

Walsall outdoor pursuits is an Adventurous Activities Licensing Authority (AALA) registered centre together with Royal Yachting Association (RYA) - Registered Training Centre (RTC) with RYA sailability foundation status.

Colchester Natural History Musuem

A fascinating chance to get closer to nature. Find out about wildlife habitats, biodiversity and climate change.

Hollytrees Museum

Follow the story around this beautiful Georgian building taking in domestic life and childhood in Colchester over the past 300 years.

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Latest News

British schoolgirl assaulted on school trip to Iceland

hotel corridor

A viral video shows a black girl being assaulted by a white woman in a corridor.

Police in Iceland are investigating after a British schoolgirl was slapped and chased by a tour guide in a hotel corridor.

The schoolgirl, 13, who attended Harris Girls’ Academy, was assaulted whilst on a school trip to Iceland to see the Northern Lights. The incident occurred at Hotel Örk, Hveragerdi on 13th October.

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