Welcome to the Colchester Civic Society Website
At the top of this page are links to information about our Society (if you are viewing on a phone click the button to reveal the list). Most importantly you will find pages dedicated to the work we do, the people involved and how you can join and support us.
Like the many Civic Societies that exist across the UK we aim to do what we can to help make our town a good place to live, work and visit. Our members monitor and comment on planning applications and the condition of our roads and buildings, we are actively engaged in heritage projects, tree planting, looking after our public footpaths and working to help keep the town tidy and well ordered. Recently we have been actively involved in objecting to the Alumno development, in contributing to the planning for the redevelopment of St. Botolph’s Roundabout and the restoration of the murals in the Southway underpasses. We also publish books and surveys and play a major part in Heritage Open Days. The erection of commemorative blue plaques is also an important part of our work and below you will find a link to our Plaque Trails.
We welcome new members regardless of whether or not they wish to become actively involved in our work. Simply contributing to our funds through the annual subscription is a great help in our work. In return members receive a twice yearly newsletter and the opportunity to join our outings and events. Single membership is £11 per year, joint membership is £16 and for businesses we offer a corporate membership at £40 per year.
A good way to gain some insight into our work is to attend one of our monthly meetings at Greyfriars Hotel (the first Monday in the month at 10am) where members bring a wide range of issues and concerns for discussion and our Chair woman Jo Edwards reports the ongoing work of the society and progress on recently raised issues. (PLEASE NOTE THESE MEETINGS HAVE BEEN SUSPENDED TEMPORARILY DURING THE COVID 19 PANDEMIC)
You can contact Jo direct by phone on 07771626561
For general and membership enquiries please contact us by using this email link – info@colchestercivicsociety.co.uk
Links to pages detailing the work we are engaged in and how to join us are available here:
What We Do
Click on the button below to see the full list of pages outlining the work we do. This includes Conservation Work (as shown in the photo above), Planning, Highways, Licensing, Eyes and Ears, Commemorative Plaques, Public Footpaths, Trees, Street Naming, Publications and Heritage Open Days
Become a Member
Becoming a member is simple and costs just £11 per year for a single membership, £16 for a couple and £40 for a Business membership. Please join us.
The Colchester Plaque Trails
This is a unique achievement created by members of our society with the help of Placecheck Online. Three Plaque Trails have been created for the town and can be followed using online maps on your mobile phone.
Each trail not only shows the position of many of Colchester’s plaques on a map, but also provides a photo for each one, along with comprehensive information about the person or place commemorated.
Follow this link for the plaques trails. When you have opened up a Trail, simply touch the blue dots in turn to bring up each plaque and accompanying information.
Latest News
Colchester’s Great Winter Clean, 15th January to 15th February 2024
If you love Colchester and loathe litter, here is an opportunity to help towards making Colchester ‘Britain’s first recorded litter-free city.’ The aim is to remove all the old litter and rubbish blighting the Borough, including cleaning up the numerous grot-spots. The target is to fill 1,000 to 2,000 bags. Why in the middle
Thirty Cast Iron Lampposts due to be lost with the changeover to LED lighting
An update on The Cast Iron Lamppost Project in 2023 from John Salmon. As many of you will know by now Colchester Civic Society is running a project for the stripping and repainting of Colchester’s cast iron lampposts. This began in 2020 and has now just completed it’s fourth year, with lampposts in Errington Road, Wickham
New Archive Film
Three more films have been added to our Colchester on Film Archive Section this month. There is a six minute colour film, with commentary covering the major retail developments of Lion Walk, Culver Square and also the St. John’s Street supermarket and multi storey car park, a film about the opening of the Mercury Theatre
A Visit To Jumbo
A Visit To Jumbo Some of our members took the opportunity to climb up inside the water tower in January 2023. The Colchester and North East Essex Building Preservation Trust, who are now the lease holders, hosted two parties of members on this visit and others, who did not feel up to the long climb,
Colchester City Status Celebrations – A story from Jo Edwards
Colchester officially became a city on Wednesday, 23 November, when the letters patent – an official document written on parchment – was presented to the mayor during a special meeting of the Full Council. As part of the media presentations of the event Jo Edwards agreed to be interviewed by BBC Essex on our behalf.
Update on our Cast Iron Lamppost renovation project
Colchester Civic Society’s project to renovate our cast iron lampposts is now in it’s third year. In the previous two years more than forty of Colchester’s historic cast iron lampposts, most of which were made in local foundries during the early years of the twentieth century, have been stripped and repainted. This year teams in