Exhibition boards celebrate rich history of Colchester Town station

A project to celebrate the history of Colchester Town station and its connection to the name St Botolph’s is to be unveiled on Friday 25 August.

Greater Anglia has commissioned three information display boards telling the story of the station, from its very beginnings to its role during World Wars 1 and 2, and finishing with a poem written by Charles Benham in 1890 in the regional dialect of the time.

Will Quince MP will unveil the boards at 11am on Friday as part of a ribbon cutting ceremony attended by local dignitaries, including the Mayor of Colchester and William Jolliffe - who has campaigned for the station’s name to be changed back to its original name of St Botolph’s and worked alongside Greater Anglia in the creation of the boards.

The information for the boards was written by local historian and author, Andrew Phillips, and Greater Anglia has invested around £3,000 in producing and erecting them at Colchester Town.

Colchester Town station was originally known as St Botolph’s owing to its location at St Botolph’s Corner. It was changed to Colchester Town in 1992.

Greater Anglia’s Stakeholder Manager, Paul Oxley, said, “For most people visiting Colchester, the name Colchester Town very clearly signifies where you should alight for the town centre and shopping area. So, although we do not feel it would be right to change the name of the station, erecting these boards means that we can celebrate the station’s history and link it very firmly to St Botolph’s and provide fascinating, in depth information about the station’s rich history at the same time, which we think will be interesting to local people and visitors alike.”