The Minories is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

and gardens situated at the east end of High Street in

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colch ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

, England, near Hollytrees, Gate House and

Colchester Castle Colchester Castle is a Norman castle in Colchester, Essex, England, dating from the second half of the eleventh century. The keep of the castle is mostly intact and is the largest example of its kind anywhere in Europe, due to its being bui ...

. It currently houses The Minories Galleries which are run by Colchester School of Art, part of

Colchester Institute Colchester Institute is a large provider of further and higher education based in the city of Colchester. Colchester Institute provides full-time and part-time courses for a wide variety of learners including 16 to 19 year olds, apprentices, adu ...

Early history

The house is believed to have been built in the

Tudor period The Tudor period occurred between 1485 and 1603 in England and Wales and includes the Elizabethan period during the reign of Elizabeth I until 1603. The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in England that began wit ...

. In 1731 it was purchased by the

baize Baize is a coarse woollen (or in cheaper variants cotton) cloth, similar in texture to felt, but more durable. History A mid-17th-century English ditty—much quoted in histories of ale and beer brewing in England—refers to 1525: Hops, her ...

manufacturer Isaac Boggis for £420. His son, Thomas Boggis, inherited the house, and employed an architect, probably John Alefounder (1732–1787) to remodel the building, turning parts of it into an elegant Georgian residence. The Boggis family lived in the house for almost 200 years. From 1821 to 1915 the building had several owners and tenants, one of whom was Dr. Becker, a general practitioner (GP) whose son, Harry Becker, lived there for a time while he learned his trade as a

landscape painter Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent composi ...

and went on to become one of East Anglia's best known artists. In 1915 Geoffrey Crawford Bensusan-Butt and his wife Dr.

Ruth Crawford Ruth Crawford Seeger (born Ruth Porter Crawford; July 3, 1901 – November 18, 1953) was an American composer and folk music specialist. Her music was a prominent exponent of the emerging modernist aesthetic and she became a central member of a ...

took over the lease, purchasing the property along with a portion of land that included the Gothic Folly, a summer house built in 1830. Crawford later had three exhibitions of his artwork shown at the Minories in 1962, 1964 and 1975. Dr. Ruth Crawford was the sister-in-law of the painter

Lucien Pissarro Lucien Pissarro (20 February 1863 – 10 July 1944) was a landscape painter, printmaker, wood engraver and designer and printer of fine books. His landscape paintings employ techniques of Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism, but he also exhi ...

, and was one of the first female GPs in Colchester. She used the front rooms of The Minories as her consulting rooms, and also opened Colchester's first infant nursery there. One of the Bensusan-Butt's three children was the English economist,

David Bensusan-Butt David Miles Bensusan-Butt (24 July 1914, Colchester – 25 March 1994, London) was an English economist who spent much of his career in Australia. Known as David, he published his work as D. M. Bensusan-Butt. Background and education A nephew of ...

The Victor Batte-Lay Trust

In 1956 Dr. Ruth, who had survived her husband, sold The Minories along with the garden to the Victor Batte-Lay Trust, named after the art collector who had been a hereditary freeman of the town. The trust was set up by Batte-Lay's window, Margaret, to purchase and endow a building in Colchester as a memorial to her husband. From 1963 to 1974 R. A. Bevan was chair of the Victor Batte-Lay Trust. The Minories was sold on the strict condition that it would continue to be used for artistic purposes. The Victor Batte-Lay Trust has provided a public cultural and artistic centre for

and North-East Essex. No. 73, the house next door to The Minories, was purchased and added in 1975 with funding from Eastern Arts and the support of local professionals. The Minories, run by the Trust as The Minories Art Gallery, presented work by

Edward Bawden Edward Bawden, (10 March 1903 – 21 November 1989) was an English painter, illustrator and graphic artist, known for his prints, book covers, posters, and garden metalwork furniture. Bawden taught at the Royal College of Art, where he had be ...

, Leon Underwood,

Eric Ravilious Eric William Ravilious (22 July 1903 – 2 September 1942) was a British painter, designer, book illustrator and wood-engraver. He grew up in Sussex, and is particularly known for his watercolours of the South Downs and other English landsc ...

, Harry Becker,

John Bratby John Randall Bratby RA (19 July 1928 – 20 July 1992) was an English painter who founded the kitchen sink realism style of art that was influential in the late 1950s. He made portraits of his family and celebrities. His works were seen i ...

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

and Paul Nash,

Cedric Morris Sir Cedric Lockwood Morris, 9th Baronet (11 December 1889 – 8 February 1982) was a British artist, art teacher and plantsman. He was born in Swansea in South Wales, but worked mainly in East Anglia. As an artist he is best known for his portra ...

, Christopher Wood,

Bill Brandt Bill Brandt (born Hermann Wilhelm Brandt; 2 May 1904 – 20 December 1983)Paul DelanyBill Brandt: A Life was a British photographer and photojournalist. Born in Germany, Brandt moved to England, where he became known for his images of British ...

Maggi Hambling Margaret ("Maggi") J. Hambling (born 23 October 1945) is a British artist. Though principally a painter her best-known public works are the sculptures '' A Conversation with Oscar Wilde'' and '' A Sculpture for Mary Wollstonecraft'' in London, ...

Jacob Epstein Sir Jacob Epstein (10 November 1880 – 21 August 1959) was an American-British sculptor who helped pioneer modern sculpture. He was born in the United States, and moved to Europe in 1902, becoming a British subject in 1911. He often produce ...

and

Mark Wallinger Mark Wallinger (born 25 May 1959) is a British artist. Having previously been nominated for the Turner Prize in 1995, he won in 2007 for his installation ''State Britain''. His work ''Ecce Homo'' (1999–2000) was the first piece to occupy the ...

. By the early 1990s the Trust's resources were significantly reduced, and the gallery closed in 1992, leading to a period of uncertainty. It reopened in 1994 when

Firstsite Firstsite is a visual arts organisation based in Colchester, Essex, which opened in 2011. It was the national Art Fund's Museum of the Year in 2021. The building Firstsite occupy as tenants was designed by Rafael Viñoly and the freehold is r ...

took on the lease and continued to pay some of the Trust's obligations.

The Victor Batte-Lay Trust Collection

Upon her death in 1955, Margaret Batte-Lay bequeathed her husband's collection of art objects to "the people of Colchester … in particular those who shall take an interest in the artistic and antiquarian features of that town".Art for Colchester: The 20th century collecting practices of the Victor Batte-Lay Trust xhibition catalogueExhibited at The Minories Galleries, Colchester 22 September -20 October 2012. The initial collection held works mainly by British artists, including still lives from the 17th century, regency portraiture, 18th century prints and drawings and 19th century oil paintings and samplers. This collection was first displayed on the ground floor of The Minories Gallery in an imitation of the original domestic setting together with new acquisitions which included antique clocks and chandeliers that highlighted Batte-Lay’s discerning taste in art and antiques. By the end of the decade, the Trustees had acquired new works through purchases, loans and gifts with the intention to expand the Permanent Collection. By the 1960s, as the collection grew via purchases and the occasional gift, it also took on a more modern direction in order to attract new and younger audiences. Works acquired during this period varied in style but the strength of the collection lay in its possession of prints by several British modernists most notably, John Nash, Paul Nash and Blair Hughes-Stanton as well as 14 figure drawings by Camille Pissarro. The acquisition and subsequent sale of

Robert Bevan Robert Polhill Bevan (5 August 1865 – 8 July 1925) was a British painter, draughtsman and lithographer. He was a founding member of the Camden Town Group, the London Group, and the Cumberland Market Group. Early life He was born in Bruns ...

’s The Cab Yard in the 1970s paved the way for the purchase of the adjacent property as a new exhibiting space, which became known as The Girling Room. As a result, the Contemporary Art Society gifted generously to the collection with works such as

Margaret Mellis Margaret Nairne Mellis (22 January 1914 – 17 March 2009) was a Scottish artist, one of the early members and last survivors of the group of modernist artists that gathered in St Ives, in Cornwall, in the 1940s. She and her first husband, Ad ...

' Lilac Yellow and Ian McKeever's Sand and Sea Series No. 8. The Victor Batte-Lay Trust then developed a policy of acquiring work by 20th century artists preferably with strong regional links. In the early 1980s, the team at The Minories was the recipient of a sizeable amount of funding from charitable organisations and Friends of The Minories which led to the setting up of an official purchasing policy. The collection expanded again through new purchases, most significantly the team established a sculpture collection. During this period, there was also a Permanent Collection room that exhibited a selection of works on rotation. By the mid-1980s the collection faced a sudden change in funding circumstances. In order to stay afloat, several works were sold off and those acquired by Colchester Borough Council stayed in the local area. At present, the Victor Batte Lay collection consists of 135 acquisitions by renowned British and international artists. They are not on permanent display but a selection of the Victor Batte-Lay art collection can be viewed in temporary exhibitions at Colchester’s

and on loan in regional and national institutions. Images of the works are available online.

Current use

In early 2008 Firstsite left The Minories and moved into Crouch Street while their new building was developed, and in June 2008

took on the lease for the Minories. The site then became home to The Minories Galleries, a contemporary art gallery run by Colchester School of Art which is open to the public and houses the Colchester School of Art's Postgraduate programmes and a café surrounded by a walled garden. The Minories is next door to Firstsite, Colchester’s contemporary art space, in the centre of St Botolph's Quarter. Since being run by Colchester School of Art and Colchester Institute, The Minories has presented exhibitions by artists and designers including Joseph Robinson,

Abram Games Abram Games (29 July 191427 August 1996) was a British graphic designer. The style of his work – refined but vigorous compared to the work of contemporaries – has earned him a place in the pantheon of the best of 20th-century graphic desi ...

Romek Marber Romek Marber (25 November 1925 – 30 March 2020) was a Polish-born British graphic designer and academic known for his work illustrating the covers of Penguin Books. He retired in 1989, becoming a Professor Emeritus of Middlesex University. ...

, Noel Myles, Keith Albarn (father of Blur frontman Damon) and Chris Meigh-Andrews. In October 2015, the cafe and tearoom in the back of the venue was taken over by

Wilkin & Sons Wilkin & Sons Limited is a manufacturer of preserves, marmalades and associated products established in Tiptree, Essex, England in 1885, and known for its "Tiptree" brand of fruit preserves. History The Wilkin family came to Tiptree, Essex and s ...

and is now operated as the Batte-Lay Tearoom, whilst the gallery space remains under previous management. Due to the Covid19 pandemic the Colchester Institute decided not to reopen. The Victor Batte-Lay Foundation took back control and created a subsidiary body, ''We are the Minories'' with support from Arts Council England and the Cultural Regeneration Fund.

The Friends of The Minories

The Friends of the Minories is an organisation which supports the gallery and assists in its funding. About four or five events occur each year, generally visits to local places of interest. The revenue from these fund-raising events goes into maintaining the garden and its 18th-century Gothic Folly. The garden and Folly are both registered with the Essex Gardens Trust.

References

External links

The Victor Batte-Lay Trust CollectionThe Friends of The MinoriesWe Are the MinoriesEssex Gardens Trust
{{DEFAULTSORT:Minories, Colchester Grade II listed buildings in Essex History of Colchester Art museums and galleries in Essex Buildings and structures in Colchester (town)