The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
The mystery of who knitted creations adorning tree stumps on Spalding riverside has been resolved.
Three residents of Georgian Court housing development – Carol Usher, Jan Neale and Kitty Dickinson – have claimed responsibility.
The first creation – Julipa – with the Georgian Court housing development in the background.
The first of three creations – Julipa – popped up in late May near Churchgate’s junction with Love Lane. Then in mid-June The Queen was depicted in the next stump covering, to mark Her Majesty’s 90th birthday.
After the third project – Joseph’s Cat of Many Colours – appeared near The Vista junction, the creators decided to reveal themselves.
Carol said: “It was Jan’s idea orginally. When you looked out of her window you could see the first tree and it was all bare. She thought it needed doing up!”
The three women got to work after measuring up the stump. Completing Julipa (named after Spalding’s Tulipa mascot) took them two weeks.
Carol said: “Lots of people came by to see it so we thought we would do another one for The Queen’s birthday.
“Then somebody said a cat would be good for the third one.
“We thought they would bring a bit of cheer. There’s a lot of doom and gloom around at the moment and we just wanted to make people smile!”
Voice reader Jeff Woods said: “I think it’s astonishing what they’ve done – if we’d seen people being commissioned to do something like this we wouldn’t have been surprised.”
Carol hinted that it could be an ongoing project – the first one has already been removed in readiness for another.
News of the three mystery knitters being unveiled brought a big reaction on The Voice’s Facebook page, with scores of people saying how much they enjoyed the creations and thanking the women for their efforts.
Spalding district councillor Jack McLean – a champion of keeping the riverside picturesque – said: “I would be pleased to see the knitted queen as the new face of street art in Spalding.
“I think the warm response to the knitters’ work speaks for itself.
“I am personally quite keen to commission a piece for a specific occasion or location. I would welcome any ideas of that nature.”
