THESE archive images show how the landscape might change but some things just stay the same.

None more so that St John’s Abbey Gate, a lasting reminder of the Abbey which once stood in Colchester.

The abbey was founded in 1095 by Eudo Dapifer, William the Conqueror’s High Steward and Constable of Colchester Castle.

In the late 14th and early 15th centuries the gatehouse was added and it was eventually bought by the Lucas family who converted some of the abbey buildings into a house.

It remained their family seat until the mid-17th century and was used to house Dutch prisoners in the 1660s.