YOUNG archaeologists have won special recognition after youngsters helped devise a trail throughout the city to trace the lives of protestant martyrs in the 16th century.

Put together by youngsters between the ages of eight and 16 at Colchester Young Archaeologists’ Club (CYAC), the project researched 72 martyrs, ten of whom all died on the same day in Colchester – four in Colchester Castle and six at the town walls in Balkerne Gate.

The name of the project, ‘Caught in a Treacherous Tudor Web’, was used to signify the persecution protestants were trapped in throughout the 16th and 17th centuries.

The Marsh Award for Community Archaeology, run in partnership with the Council for British Archaeology, gave CYAC a highly commended award for the community archaeology project of the year 2022.

On Tuesday, CYAC marked 465 years since the martyrs, known as the Colchester Ten, met their fate when they were burned at the stake.

As Barbara Butler, one of the volunteers at Colchester Young Archaeologists Club explains, the trail takes people through the areas of Colchester which the Colchester Ten would have been familiar with.

She said: “It’s a bit of a difficult project to work through with children, which is why we went with the caught in a Tudor web idea.

“The idea was to engage local communities with their local history after the pandemic last year – although some members couldn’t come anymore because they had started university, we had some new members between eight and ten who got really engaged.”

The trail not only goes past key landmarks which the Colchester 10 would have been familiar with, but it also features other places of worship to show the increase in religious tolerance over the centuries.

Mrs Butler added: “This was total religious conflict 465 years ago – this specific story is not very well known but this is what you can do in Colchester to find out some of the associated with the Colchester Ten.”

The video of the trail can be found via the YouTube channel run by Peter Porteous-Butler, a volunteer at Colchester Young Archaeologists’ Club.