The Ceramic Mural at the old Booths Supermarket

Do you remember the ceramic mural at the old Booths Supermarket over the entrance on Ball Street? Seemingly lost during the sale and refit of the store, it had an interesting local connection.

The piece was made by Kathy Cartledge, along with another artist called Kenn Gunn. At the time Kathy had a pottery in Thornton Cleveleys. Husband Barrie was working for J Preston and sons, a plumbing company from Fleetwood.

Kathy and Barrie’s son, Lee, got in touch with us at Visit Fylde Coast, to see if we could find out what had happened to the mural. Over the course of a few emails, it’s interesting story was revealed.

The Story of the Ceramic Mural at the old Booths Supermarket

In the early 70’s Barrie was involved with designing a heating system for a new Booths’ supermarket to be opened in Poulton-le-Fylde.

On a whim he wrote to the Managing Director of Booths, suggesting they should consider having a ceramic mural as a centrepiece decoration in this new Poulton store. Much to Barrie’s surprise the Managing Director replied to say this was a great idea. More surprisingly still, he’d consulted with the architect and they wanted it on the shop front. It was to measure approximately 1 metre by 10 metres.

Working on the piece

Kathy worked on the design of the mural with fellow potter Ken Gunn. They came up with a sketch that was loosely based upon the Booths’ logo of the time which was a lion. Despite the sketch being quite abstract (it really is difficult to locate the lion in the finished mural) the design was approved and they got the go ahead to make it.

The sketch was traced out onto tissue paper and then transferred onto slabs of clay, where 3D detail was then added.

Kathy had a few visits from members of the Booths’ family during the making of the mural. On one visit, she was asked to remove and scale down some of the 3d elements. They were concerned that people would use them as hand holds to climb onto the mural. So Kathy was cheated out of unintentionally producing one of the first artificial climbing walls in the U.K! On another visit a different member of the Booths’ family showed what can only be described as a lukewarm enthusiasm for it, saying that its purpose was just to cover up the very “ordinary” architecture.

Fastening the ceramic in place

Once all the panels of the mural were fired, Booths sent some wooden plywood panels to stick them onto. Barrie was apprehensive about how to stick the tiles to the wood. This was in the days before Gorilla Glue!

He experimented with a few different glues before deciding to use a silicon based adhesive. He remembers being very worried that the vibrations from traffic on the road outside might cause the tiles to fall off. He need not have worried, as the mural remained firmly stuck to the shop front of Booths for 45 years. Then Booths sold the store to Aldi in 2016 and relocated to the Teanlowe Centre in Poulton.

Take a look at close ups of the Ceramic Mural at the old Booths Supermarket. Photos: Bentham Pottery

What Happened to the Ceramic Mural?

Before contacting us, Lee had already enquired about what happened to the mural.

Booth’s response was “It appears from our estates manager that unfortunately we couldn’t remove it to keep it. So it went with the building when sold on.”

When contacting Aldi, they replied “We would advise you to speak to Booths directly as this mural would have been their property prior to us building on the land.”

Of course after purchasing the former Booths store, Aldi knocked down the rear of it and converted it into a car park. The front of the store (which would have had the mural on) was converted into a smaller unit, currently rented to Card Factory.

Continuing the trail of the mural…

Lee then contacted Card Factory, and they didn’t reply. As tenants who moved into the store once it had been refitted it’s understandable that they wouldn’t know anything about the mural.

Lee says “I’ll be the first to admit that this is getting ever so slightly obsessive!”

The Cartledge family relocated to Low Bentham in North Yorkshire – now called Bentham Pottery – so Lee’s research is being carried out via the internet.

He rang the butcher’s next door to the original shop front. They said that the mural had been put in a skip. They also told me a man called Greg, an ex-taxi driver who runs a business consultancy in Poulton, had some pieces of it. They then became a bit vague about Greg. Lee says “I think they were worried that I was pursuing him for illicitly acquiring a historically important artefact!”

Who’s Greg?

Then Lee emailed a number of business consultancies in Poulton before finding Greg. Actually it’s Greg’s step son who runs the consultancy business.
Greg, it turns out, was rightly appalled that the mural was going to be thrown out. So he liberated some fragments of it from the skip, and they’re now on permanent display in his garden. He says “I only hope that other people did the same thing!”

So, sadly, it looks as though the bulk of the Booths mural is confined to the skip of important lost UK art works. However a few shards remain intact and perhaps provide a shadow of its once former glory.

Can you add anything to this piece of local social history? Just email jane@theRabbitPatch.co.uk

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