Settle mural: Yorkshire Dales teens help design artwork

Robert Walker with the young people who helped design the mural

A mural painted in a Yorkshire Dales village has been designed and created with a group of young people to show their connection to the area.

The three-storey artwork on Kirkgate, Settle, features the words "soar", "wandering", "rise" and "rolling".

It was co-designed with 14-19 year olds in an initiative led by Lancashire art and culture company Deco Publique.

Signwriter Robert Walker, who painted the mural, said it gave him "enormous joy" to work on the project.

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It is part of a creative initiative, called The Fold, commissioned Great Place: Lakes and Dales, which is one of 16 pilot projects in England funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England.

It features the word 'rolling' among others

It is focused on the rural corridor linking Skipton, North Yorkshire, and Grasmere in the Lake District, including the market towns and more rural areas.

Lily Whittle, 19, from Wigglesworth, just outside Settle, was one of the teenagers involved.

She said: "There aren't that many creative opportunities for people my age to get involved in here, so when I first heard about The Fold, the prospect of bringing more of an arts scene to Settle was extremely exciting.

"I felt it was important to include the word 'rise' in the mural; to me it's about rising to the challenge of growing up, eventually leaving Settle to go to university and having to face bigger things, but knowing this town has made me."

Lauren Zawadzki, Director of Deco Publique, said: "We were all enormously conscious of the heritage of the area and wanted the art to reflect that whilst also being something that has a contemporary angle that the young people could take ownership of.

"In bringing on board 'Signs by Umberto' to collaborate on and deliver the project we were able to take advantage of Robert's incredible experience in traditional typography which really helped bring the ideas to life."

The mural is painted on the side of a building at the top of Kirkgate in Settle