Our history

We were originally named ‘Old People’s Welfare Committee’ and relied on government funding which was readily available to improve people’s welfare after the war.

Steptoe and son’s Wilfred Brambell opened our first community hub called the Brambell Room in Colchester. It was a walk-in centre for older people who were becoming more independent. It was a place for people to engage with others of similar age.

With the elderly population growing, the need was growing too. We needed more space and staff to continue improving the quality of life of Colchester’s older community. So, we changed our name to Age Concern and moved to Stockwell Street, Colchester, a beautiful Grade ll Tudor building with a terrace and garden.

We helped people to identify and claim over £1 million in benefits and entitlements. We also started to provide advocacy for those who moved to the UK from other countries.

The need for our services within the community continued to grow and we also started engaging with other agencies and partners. This allowed us to start signposting and gave people the opportunity to access free legal advice at our surgeries.

We introduced groups and activities outside of Colchester in Tiptree, Wivenhoe and Fordham and we started our friendship clubs. We also changed our name to Age UK Colchester.

We changed our name back to Age Concern Colchester and introduced our Services Directory to provide reliable advice and a list of trusted and checked tradespeople.

We introduced our volunteer friendship services (Befriending) to tackle unseen loneliness in our community. We also started to provide specialist support for those living with dementia.