The Colchester Sculpture Survey
A survey conducted by Robert Mercer for Colchester Civic Society and Colchester Planning Dept.
The survey of the Colchester Sculptures originated from a request by Simon Cairns, the Development and Planning Manager at the Planning Department for the Civic Society to consider such a piece of research .
The remit was pieces of accessible public sculpture in the Colchester Borough area.
Having done this kind of Borough wide surveys in the past ,I was happy to undertake this kind of work and the first survey was submitted in April 2022.
Pam Cox, now our new Member of Parliament but at the time a local Councillor and Professor of Social Policy at the University of Essex, suggested that the survey would benefit by extending to incorporate the University Sculpture Collection. I suspect that this collection was hardly known by the known by the wider public and not least myself.
Fortunately I was given a positional plan of the University grounds and a part description of many of the pieces by Chris Anderton, a retired member of the University staff, without which I would never have found the majority of the pieces in the University landscape. I was finally able to complete this addition to the survey as well as the new Taylor Sisters sculpture in the High Street which is now surely the most popular piece in the City and update this all in 2024.
Hopefully this will enable a better exploration of sculptures in the City wide area and especially the Collection at the University of Essex.
