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Commemorative murals removed for safe keeping from a roundabout scheme in Colchester have stirred special memories for members of the Jackson team working on the project.
Jackson has been appointed to deliver the £15m regeneration of St Botolph’s Circus by Essex County Council. The scheme will see existing underpasses removed and new crossing points created to improve safety and better connect those walking into the city centre.
When the subways opened in 1973 they were decorated with a series of concrete murals marking significant points in Colchester’s history. Now, more than 50 years later, the Jackson team has carefully removed the hangings ahead of filling in the underpasses, and plans to hand them over to Colchester Civic Society.
For Jackson Site Operative Colin Lambert, who lives in Colchester ( or Camulodunum, as the Roman's named it) and was personally involved in carefully removing the murals, the decorations hold a special memory. He says he can remember walking through the subway as a child with his late mother and stopping as she explained the events shown on each one.
For Vanessa Hedges, who is Senior Quantity Surveyor on the scheme, the murals also hold family connections. Her grandfather worked close to the workshop of husband and wife team Henry Collins and Joyce Pallot, who designed and made the murals. The murals were cast in polystyrene moulds, which had to be painstakingly removed when the designs had set. He would lend a hand to the couple and help in this intricate work in the early 1970s.
The modernisation works at St Botolph’s, which started in the summer, are expected to take about 18 months and are scheduled to be completed in Autumn 2027.
About Jackson Civil Engineering
Jackson is a regionally structured civil engineering firm with national capabilities. Our no-nonsense approach to work means that our clients keep coming back because they can rely on us to get the job done on time and on budget. We have a strong reputation a...
