 FitzWalter then escalated his attacks on individuals to the town itself, and on 20 May 1342 placed Colchester under an armed siege.He ambushed anyone caught entering or leaving the town, "until no man [could] go to a market or fair from Easter until Whitsuntide".FitzWalter and his men barricaded the roads with wood from the broken doors and roof beams of houses they had destroyed.