Colchester Awnings

"The Awning Thing"

An edited version of Clay's posting on 6th June 2003:

When I first began collecting Hazle pieces in 1998, I early on discovered and was fascinated by the different ways the same moulds were painted - not just the color variations but completely different shops.

And "The Awning Thing"? During the early era, Hazle produced some nearly identical moulds - but with an interesting variation. Some had no awning, some had a "rounded" awning, and some a "straight" awning. I had discovered the hidden world of the older retired shops such as the Hairdresser, Fishmonger, Jeweller, Barber, Bakery, East End and East Side (NY) Delis - and I was hooked. In older brochures from Hazle, I was able to find pictures of most of these - but not East End Deli.

Then recently I discovered yet another variation - on the Greengrocer, a staple of anyone's High Street. The one I have has a round awning with ONE window on top and I think comes as brick or green. Hazle brochures show another round awning with TWO windows on top! But they both have the same catalogue number. Hmmm. Anyway, here's my list of who's got what awning. Please correct or add to it if you can.

From Marilyn: Clay's amended list is shown later. Here is the first batch of photos:

Terry replied:

I have two additions for Clay's list:

Straight Awning
Hairdresser - I have this with no Hazle signature on the front.

No Awning
Town & Country - I have sold this recently.

Marilyn's reply was completely revised in 2006 when photos were added:

Colchester Awnings was one of the seven original buildings (as Round and Straight Awnings) that Hazle first sold to stockists as a complete street in 1990.

Photo 1 below is the early Greengrocer, one of many paintings on Round Awning 1. Photo 2 shows Round Awning 2, introduced in 1995 and only painted as a Greengrocer. Variants on this mould are shown in the table below. It also comes brick-coloured. The same catalogue number for both versions simply refers to a company pricing point.

Photo 3 is the standard Butcher on the Straight Awning.

The No Awning was only used for non-standard paintings. Photo 4 shows East Side Deli which started on this, then moved to Round Awning 1 when No Awning finished casting. Brian at John English Gifts suggested the East End version, which I have only seen on Round Awning 1. The painting is identical to East Side apart from the name.

TABLE OF COLCHESTER AWNINGS

All STANDARD PAINTINGS are shown. The list of OTHERS is not exhaustive.