Tributes
Colchester Cycling Campaign has been going since January 1990. In that time we have had some superb people join us to try to get better cycling infrastructure in the city. Sadly some are with us no more.
Dr Chris Hall
Dr Chris Hall, a founder member of Colchester Cycling Campaign, has died aged 85. You can read his full obituary in the Gazette here.
Chris, who was also a Colchester Rover, was at the very first meeting of the campaign, at the Marquis of Granby pub in North Hill, in January 1990.
As a GP, a councillor and later mayor, Chris used his influence to support cycling in all its forms. He was among the first to point out the connections between regular exercise and better public health.
Thank you, Chris. Rest in peace. The cycling campaign sends its condolences to the Hall family.
Pam Nelson , left, played an active part in CCC for more than 20 years
Pam Nelson
Campaign stalwart Pam Nelson died in July 2023 after having cancer for six years. Pam burst on to the city’s cycling scene when she came to a monthly pub meeting, then at the Stockwell Arms in the Dutch Quarter, in the late 1990s.
Campaigning is always a rollercoaster and at the time cynicism had set in after one of the many knock-backs to our dreams. Suddenly, whoa! There was no saying “no”. There was a “we have to do it”, “they must do it”, “they can’t say no” and “BUT WHY NOT?” Pam had arrived with her irrepressible, infectious, overwhelming enthusiasm.
She supercharged our meetings and allocated jobs for everyone, firing us up so that we kept going whatever brickbats Essex Highways threw at us.
She joined not just the cycling campaign but the Colchester Cycling Forum, Sustrans and Cycling UK (then the CTC). She trained as a cycling instructor and toured local schools on her Brompton folding bike. She arranged the Sunday leisure rides run by the late Alan Palmer. She also cared for her own part of the National Cycle Network as a ranger. What’s more she signed up everyone she met!
Pam was CTC volunteer of the year for East Anglia in 2004 and later one of the Top 100 Women in Cycling.
She then called on her impressive list of contacts and helped to arrange a bid for Colchester to be named a cycling town by the government.
In 2008 she and then chairman Steffen Boehm arranged a meeting at the Minories where the great and the good of the town were represented. Their efforts bore fruit the next year when Colchester was named as an official cycling town. That brought in £4.2 million of funding which led to the creation of the garrison and High Woods trails as well as the contraflow cycleway along Crouch Street.
Pam’s hobby eventually turned into a paid job and she became part of the active travel team at the then Colchester Borough Council, co-ordinating In Town Without My Car Day and clean air initiatives. She also co-founded Colchester Bike Kitchen and inspired the Colchester Cycling Charter.
RIP our friend x
Alan’s daughter Helen and friends at one of Alan’s favourite place, the Chappel viaduct
Alan Palmer
Pam Nelson writes Alan Palmer, a much respected Colchester cyclist, died in August 2019 aged 79. Alan was a long time member of CTC (now Cycling UK) and helped a group of CCC members re-establish the Colchester Sunday rides in 2009. The group has become the best supported in Essex – largely down to Alan's experience and patience as well as his encyclopaedic knowledge of roads and lanes within 70 miles of Colchester. When new ride leaders came on board they would try to plan a route with a lane that Alan was unaware of: few succeeded.
Alan was also supportive of new riders, and when ill health meant he could not manage the pace and hills of the main group, he set up "Alan's Sunday ride", with an easier route and steadier pace that was ideal for newcomers. He planned his route to join us for elevenses and lunch, and his timing was usually spot on.
Alan was also a regular at our monthly Bike Drinks meetings and contributed to our debates about improving local cycling infrastructure.
Will Bramhill writes I had the pleasure of accompanying Alan on various CCC rides. One that is particularly memorable took place when age and hills were getting the better of him. We set off from Colchester to Mistley via a route that I had not ridden in all my 50 years on a bike. A lot of it I recognised but then just as I was expecting a left turn, we dived right. And then vice-versa! I would have taken a more direct route if I had been by myself . Then as I unwrapped my sandwiches at Mistley Place Environment Centre, it dawned on me: we hadn’t taken in any major hills … all the gradients were mere dimples. For me this showed Alan’s knowledge of the north Essex countryside like nothing else. Alan was also brilliant at Bike Drinks. He was generally quiet and deep in thought but when he did pipe up, everyone listened. He loved nothing better than to talk bike mechanics with fellow cyclists once the main business was over. A hat-tip to you, sir!
Update, March 2024: Many thanks to Colchester City Council for agreeing to honour Alan – a path has been named after him. "Alan Palmer Way" runs at the back of the Castellum Grange development and leads to the tunnel to Petrolea Close. Alan would like it: there is next to no gradient.
