Soldier's 'thank you' to town finally revealed

Bakewell Town Hall trustee Mike Horrod standing next to part of the mural

Part of a mural which was painted by a soldier during World War Two has been discovered in Bakewell Town Hall.

The artwork was painted by John Blake who was originally from Hertfordshire but was serving with the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) as a driver in Bakewell.

He painted a large picture of Haddon Hall on one of the walls in the town hall as a "thank you" to residents of the town who had welcomed him and other soldiers.

The artwork was covered up by wallpaper in 1958 but now staff at the town hall have managed to uncover a small part of it while re-decorating.

A grainy picture from a newspaper shows what the mural looked like before it was covered over

Town Hall trustee Mike Horrod said finding the artwork was "exciting".

"It wasn't like opening Tutankhamun's tomb but it was along that sort of line, of finding something that you thought you knew existed," he said.

The original mural is 30ft (9m) wide by 16ft (5m) high and shows the outside of the Long Gallery of Haddon Hall and some of its grounds.

Mr Horrod said he had heard rumours from people in Bakewell that there was a mural in the building and as staff were in the process of decorating, it was a good time to try to find it.

'No longer a rumour'

"The newspaper articles at the time said he [John Blake] had done this as a present, as a 'thank you' to the people of Bakewell.

"When I first found that this was there I was excited. This is no longer a rumour, this is a genuine thing that someone has spent time on," he said.

Mr Horrod said that town hall staff had contacted the Royal British Legion in Hertfordshire to let them know about the find as John Blake, who died in 1985, was originally from Bishop's Stortford.

He said it came as no surprise to them as the soldier had painted murals in his home town, mainly of Italian scenery.

So far only a small part of the Bakewell mural has been uncovered and a decision on whether to remove all the wallpaper has yet to be made.

There will be an open day on 18 September, the town hall's 135th anniversary, for people to look at what has been found.

It is thought there could be similar large scale murals like this in the town painted by John Blake.