The use of the civil wars in Colchester's tourist image

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between useable pasts and tourism to show how towns reinvented themselves using their local and unique histories throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. To achieve this, the article focuses its attention on the growing influence and importance that tourism had on Colchester's development. It shows how important visible landmarks and mythical stories are in ensuring a past's usability. Alongside this it highlights the importance of local stakeholders and businesses in owning the past and marketing the town as a historic location. In doing so it demonstrates the ways in which Colchester reinvented itself from an old Market town to become an Historic town. Focusing on the controversial history of the Siege of 1648, it will show how towns dealt with tragic narratives as they began using the past to sell themselves to the nation.