Page 14 - Hindsight Issue 26 April 2020

KetteRIng
Saving the mosaic
the story begins after college lecturer Chris Hole alerted the society of plans to demolish the 1960s grammar school building and replace it with a new one. the mosaic was not wanted on the proposed new building. Following an outcry from the public, the society set about ‘saving the mosaic’. Where to begin? through writing to the local paper, we found that Ken Budd, the original creator of the mosaic, had died, however, his son oliver Budd was also a mosaic artist. only he could carry out the work required.
the mosaic measured 15 feet x 45 feet. A survey by oliver revealed that the pieces were individually placed directly onto the college wall. It was established that it would be possible to remove the mosaic in jigsaw sections using a sticky backed mesh.
11 January 2007 article in Kettering Evening Telegraph ‘Mosaic Pledge; The Society has four weeks to raise £20,000’. Fundraising began instantly. the building was soon to be demolished. With much hard work, the society raised £5,000 and Kettering Borough Council came to the rescue with the rest. At least the mosaic was saved from demolition. oliver Budd removed the mosaic during the college summer holiday taking it away to store in his studio in Kent.
the next hurdle was to find a site large enough for the mosaic. this took several years involving many letters, emails and meetings. Issues had to be addressed such as ownership of the site, future maintenance, insurance, planning permission etc. Many sites were considered until eventually we found a wall at the back of Kettering Conference Centre big enough.
Having found a site, we needed to raise funds to have the mosaic restored and installed, but without being a registered charity we could not do this. In 2009 the society registered as a charity and searched for funding through a variety of different arts societies including the 20th Century society. grand Prize draws, fundraising dinners, midsummer barbeques were never going to bring in the £30,000 plus required.
Kettering Borough Council, northamptonshire County Council, our Member of Parliament, Councillors, and the grammar school Foundation exchanged correspondence and held meetings. the Cytringanians pledged £1,000.
Between 2012 and 2018 three Heritage Lottery Bids were made. each bid took a year to prepare whilst exciting community projects had been planned. More meetings and workshops took place with trips to HLF headquarters in nottingham, followed by more meetings telling us why we had failed in our bid. each time we changed our projects according to their advice, each time the goalposts had
12