Our Conservation Work
Colchester Civic Society has a long history of involvement in conservation projects, from the Scheregate Improvement scheme and the Cannock Mill/Bourne Mill project of the 1960’s, through to the Southway Murals Restoration in 2018 and ongoing projects such as the conservation of Colchester’s Cast iron Lampposts and Historic Street Signs.
Below are links to pages detailing some of these projects, beginning with those which are ongoing.
Survey of Historic Street Names
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 .
Colchester's War Memorials
The impressive war memorial at the east end of Colchester High Street is a major landmark, but Colchester possess more than fifty other memorials dating from the Great War of 1914 – 1918.
In October 2017 Dr Paul Rusiecki was requested by the Colchester Civic Society to produce a survey of all the borough’s war memorials connected with the Great War. The aim was to establish whether any of them required repairs and/or refurbishment during 2018, the centenary of the Armistice, and the year in which funding for such matters might reasonably be expected to end. We are pleased to report that none were found to be in need of repair.
Colchester's Cast Iron Lampposts
A survey in 2019 by Robert Mercer established that Colchester had 300 unique cast iron lampposts, plus around thirty more bought in from sources outside of the town. (you will find a link for the survey at the bottom of the page) The Colchester cast iron lampposts were made for the Borough Council by a number of Colchester Foundries during the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries. The pattern, or wooden former used to produce these castings was owned by Colchester Borough Council and passed to the foundry which had the current contract to supply castings for the street lighting. Originally these would have all been for gas lights, but in due course they were converted to electric lighting.
The Bourne Mill Cannock Mill Project
This was one of the societies earliest and most significant conservation projects, completed almost fifty years ago and two members of our current executive committee have been associated with the society long enough to have played a small part in this.
The Society bought the land between Bourne Mill and Cannock Mill, cleared the stream of vast quantities of rubbish, cut back undergrowth and restored the footpath so that its future as a properly maintained public open space could be assured. The land is now in the care of the Borough Council and as the photos below demonstrate they have continued to keep the path , with its long sections of boardwalk, in good order.
The Southway Murals
Colchester Civic Society in collaboration with Colchester in Bloom began fundraising in 2014 in order to restore the series of concrete murals produced by husband and wife team Henry Collins and Joyce Pallot, which were installed in Colchester’s Southway Subways in 1973 -1974.
A grant from Essex Heritage Trust enabled feasibility work and initial restoration of the Abbeygate Street Mural. The full restoration of all the subway murals was made possible by a £55,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and also a grant from The Hervey Benham Trust.