News of Old Girls
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Joyce Pallot, 1912-2004
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Joyce Pallot was born in Brightlingsea in 1912 and little is known of her time at CCHS but she went on to study industrial art and design at Southend and Colchester Schools of Art. While at the latter, in 1932, she met artist Henry Collins (1910-1994), whom she married in 1938. Left: Henry Collins and Joyce Pallot in 1969 with Sainsbury’s Mural (Photo: Keith Mirams)
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They lived in Colchester and worked as a team - a dynamic and creative partnership which was to last for more than 60 years before Henry died. They worked on many important projects,
including the 1951 Festival of Britain, Expo 70 in Japan, Grosvenor House, London, Essex Country Council and Jamestown Festival, Virginia, USA. Their work often included elements relating to the cultural and industrial heritage of the location they were sited. After the Second World War, Joyce taught part-time in local private schools, the adult education centre and at the Colchester School of Art.
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Their first concrete mural was in 1969 in Colchester. This was a commission from Sainsbury’s with Stanley Bragg Architects for the external wall of their store in Priory Walk, which is still on view today. It was the first of its kind in the country, and was innovative in its use of concrete. They also made a series of concrete art murals for pedestrian underpasses in Southway, Colchester and these are recognised as important examples of the artists’ early work and have recently been restored. The couple went on to be commissioned by Sainsbury’s, British Home Stores and many local authorities across the UK and made an important contribution to the postwar public art movement.
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The ongoing project to restore the murals encompasses a wide programme beyond the murals’ restoration, including working with local school children and young filmmakers as well as Civic Society and Colchester in Bloom members. A film will be produced documenting their restoration and relating the murals’ historic subject matter, together with a new leaflet, family trail and interpretation boards.
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Joyce was also a keen painter and a founding member of the Colchester Art Society, where she became a leading exhibitor for more than 40 years. She was a member of the Society of Industrial Artists and Designers, the Colchester Art Society and the Society of Chartered Designers. Some of Joyce’s paintings are included in the Colchester Art Society's permanent collection and CCHS’s collection (where are they?).
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Southway murals, before restoration
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Joyce Pallot died in May 2004 at the Old Rectory Residential Home, Lexden, where she had been for ten years.
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