DROITWICH’S magnificent 42-year-old mural which depicts the town’s iconic buildings will be removed on Wednesday, November 7, so it can finally be restored.
A campaign was launched on April 2017 to get the mural restored to its former glory after a visitor to the town contacted The Standard about the mural and its future.
The Buildings of Droitwich, which contains hundreds of ceramic pieces, will be taken to The Black Dog of Wells factory for its revamp and it is hoped will be back next spring.
The removal will leave a large gap in the wall and an appeal has been made to find a suitable piece of artwork to fill the void it leaves behind.
The overall size of the gap is 3.96metres by 1.68metres.
The ‘gap’ will be filled with 56 A4 size boards which will be offered to helpers to paint or paste their art work.
The works will then be screwed to the wall and only removed when the ceramic mural is restored and replaced early next spring.
Clubs and schools are being invited to fill in the gaps with appropriate art work.
The Buildings of Droitwich was designed and manufactured by Philippa Threlfall, and unveiled in 1976.
Ceramic pieces have been falling off the mural over the past decade with no-one admitting ownership for repair.
Fortunately, the Droitwich Arts Network decided last year to take temporary ownership in order to have it restored. We are hoping that someone will come forward and accept the responsibility of ownership.
Anyone wanting to have their artwork displayed should contact Alan Davey at [email protected] or by calling 01905 773289.
The History of The Buildings of Droitwich mural
“Droitwich Town Council was the commissioning agent.
“They wanted a mural to enhance their new shopping mall and suggested a collage of buildings from the area.
“We visited the area and took photos, always trying to find unusual vernacular pieces to include in the building facade mural.
“I am an artist, and Kennedy was an historian, and together we were always happy and involved when approaching these historical themes.
“Black and white architecture is very much in evidence in the Droitwich area so we realised that we needed to find some other tones and surfaces to act as a foil for this.
“We incorporated a medieval stone font from a local church and an imposing Victorian red brick building.
“As always when researching for murals, we visited the local museum and library and were pleased to find photographic record of a big stately barge which appears on the canal.
“The sky is made of pieces of Cornish slate; we had collected bags full from a worked out quarry and nearly always used this for the sky areas in murals of this nature.”
