Over the past few years a small, voluntary group in Thrapston have been beautifying areas in the town. An under-used area close to Thrapston Library on the High Street has in particular benefi tted from the project, and has just had a wonderful new mosaic installed.
The project, led by Charlotte Croser of Jollys Toys, was completed by her and Diana Charles, Jayne Creer, Tarot Crick, Frances Hall and Katie Searle – all with various levels of previous artistic experience. The group wanted to upgrade an area in the town centre which lacked personality and purpose, and set about raising funds to renovate a raised brick plinth which holds fl agpoles and the town Christmas tree, as well as add a new community noticeboard, a mini heritage trail and seating.
Too expensive to remove, the unattractive plinth was clad in timber and the top dressed with fresh concrete to make way for laying a mosaic on top. Green Developments based in Thrapston carried out the structural work. With no fund to pay a mosaic artist, the small group of creative volunteers made up of residents, business owners and town councillors embarked on the creation themselves. They learnt the craft from a local mosaic artist and set about designing, laying tiny tile pieces onto mesh backing using craft glue and placing them over the top of their designs.
The large size of the space to be tiled meant that it was not possible to lay the tiles directly in place. Tiling onto mesh sheets meant that the mosaic could be created off -site in small sections, then pieced together in place at the end. Each artist created their own designs based on patterns, images and scenery using a range of bright coloured tile pieces 2cm squared or smaller. The tiles came from donations by local residents and local swimming pool fi rm Desjoyaux Pools.
After a year and many hundreds of hours of work, the mosaic was ready to lay in permanent place, with local fi rm, Thrapston Tiling, off ering its time and expertise free of charge. A long day, and one of the hottest days of the year, was spent laying the ready-made mosaic pieces onto the plinth, stuck down using specialist tile adhesive. A week later, when the cooler weather returned, the mosaic was grouted and the project fi nally unveiled.
The mosaic is the icing on the cake for this wonderful new community area in Thrapston town centre which has benefi tted from an extraordinary makeover worked on by such a dedicated team of volunteers in their own time. Funds for this project were sourced from many places including East Northamptonshire District Councillor Empowerment Funds from Councillors Beattie, Brackenbury, Carter, Read and Smith.
Thrapston Farmers Market contributed £2500 towards the project, developers of Castle Court in the town, Longhurst Group, paid for a bench in the area, and local businesses sponsored heritage information boards which had signifi cant input from Thrapston Heritage and were designed by Charlotte Croser.
The mosaic is a permanent installation and can be seen on Thrapston High Street next to Thrapston Library, NN14 4JJ.
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