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. 

 Thrapston Mosaic