01749 672548

Peoples Who Used the Essex Road

Year Completed : 1969

Size : 2.7m x 5.5m (9ft x 18ft)

Location : The Chequers, High Street, Ingatestone, Essex, CM4 0DG

Current Status : Still there in 2014

Peoples Who Used the Essex RoadAnother view of the mural.  The local stone in Essex is flint, so it was flint that I incorporated into the background instead of the stone and pebbles that I had used in previous murals.The mural waits unveiling.  Initially there was some resistance to this mural (“We would have preferred to have a better bus stop” was a head line in a local paper.)  But it has become something of a local landmark.Making the Ingatestone muralMaking the Ingatestone muralMaking the Ingatestone muralMaking the Ingatestone muralOriginal design for the mural in Ingatestone

We were asked to design a mural for a small shopping development in Ingatestone. This is a small market town in Essex, which is situated on the A12 trunk road. This road has for centuries been a main thoroughfare leading from the east country into London and is known as the Essex Road. I worked on the theme “People who have used the Essex Road.” We introduced a Roman foot soldier marching with his pack, a Knight Templar on horseback, and Queen Elizabeth I - who visited the area. Ingatestone was a coaching stop in the 19th century so I also introduced a Victorian coachman with frock coat and horn. We found that in the 19th and early 20th centuries, flocks of turkeys were herded down the Essex Road from Norfolk for the Christmas market. I included a man and young boy driving a turkey as well as a sheep along the road. The ceramic figures were set into cement and applied to especially made concrete blocks. Flints are very much in evidence in this area so we used these as the backing material instead of the stones and pebbles of other murals. The mural has weathered well and is still up on the wall over forty years after it was completed. A photo appears on the cover of the Ingatestone High Street - Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan 2008.

Lat/Long : 51.670820, 0.384783

Green - mural exists and with good access

Mural still exists and with good access it can be easily seen by the public

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Philippa Threlfall
Black Dog
Tor Street
Wells
Somerset
BA5 2US

01749 672548

philippa@blackdogofwells.com