The Colchester Collection of Historic Street Names – a survey

In the Autumn of 2019 ,Colchester Borough Council voted to adopt the new national criteria for local listing . This meant a much broader range of artefacts might be now listed . Colchester has an unusually large heritage of ceramic street names as well as a modest number of earlier cast iron street names which these largely replaced.

The following survey, conducted by Bob Mercer, includes a photographic record of each individual sign and position along with the distribution map, which is the necessary detail for that listing . Also required is a study of the historical background, which was gleaned from an examination of the Borough Council records at the Essex Record Office and the Colchester Local Studies Collection . The results of this are presented in the accompanying excel file .
There is also an illustrated introduction to the broader study of the signage in the Borough .

The survey has a colour coding for the cast iron ,aluminium, developer and damaged signage to separate them from the majority tiled signs.

It is hoped that the Council will seek to repair and replace the damaged and missing tiles as replacements can still be manufactured in Stoke on Trent as a special order by the Craven Dunnill factory.

Please note the links below  will take you to an Excel file which will need to be downloaded. They will only open if you have the program available on your device.