AS labours of love go, the work of the Colchester Civic Society is right up there.

The group is in the third year of its ambitious project to renovate the city's cast iron lampposts, renovating more than 40 in the past two years.

Most of the historical landmarks were made in local foundries during the early 20th century but have received little care since their installation.

Step forward the city's much respected society which has taken it upon itself to strip and repaint each of the historic lampposts.

The society is looking for other residents to aid them with the ambitious project, with the plan to renovate each historic lamppost in Colchester.

The project sees the society split into teams, with each group tackling a street.

So far this year, teams have covered Studd's Lane, Beverley Road, Queen's Road and Victoria Road.

The cast iron lampposts have been stripped and repainted restoring them to their former glory.

Essex Highways has supported the group by providing the top black coat and grey undercoat.

The first road completed this year was Studd's Lane, where the single lamppost was completed in early May.

Close behind, the team in Victoria Road completed its work, in time for the Queen’s Jubilee.

The Queen's Road team followed shortly afterwards, now passing their paint and equipment to a team in The Avenue, Lexden.

Work is also well underway in Beverley Road where the history loving volunteers are near to completing the renovation of their cast iron lampposts and are already looking to expand their work into surrounding streets.

But there is more work to be done and the group is currently looking for volunteers to come forward and aid in the restoration of the lampposts on Cambridge Road and Creffield Road.

The society is awaiting news from Gladstone Road, Hamilton Road and Salisbury Avenue which have also been supplied with paint and equipment.

The group is also waiting for a verdict from Essex Highways, on whether the cast iron lampposts can be converted into LED lampposts.

There are still many historic cast-iron lampposts across the city’s late Victorian and Edwardian streets.

On the project, Jonathan McLeod, of Victoria Road, said:“ Initially I put a message on our Victoria Road WhatsApp group, asking if anyone wanted to join me renovating the lampposts along the road.

“I had eight people message me saying they were interested and so I set up a special WhatsApp group for our team.

“I then allocated the lampposts to people, then writing down guidelines on how the lampposts should be painted.

“I put a plastic storage trunk outside the front of our house with a combination lock attached and put all the paints, brushes and equipment in the trunk.

“I asked everyone to come round and showed them how to use the equipment. From then, they just helped themselves whenever they needed anything.

“We all kept each other informed of our progress via the WhatsApp group. It worked very well and meant that people just fitted in the work as and when they could.”

The Colchester Civic Society is urging any interested citizens to get into contact, in order to help their ambitious mission.

Anyone interested can get into contact by emailing info@colchestercivicsociety.co.uk.