Explore-a-book bench trail launches

The book bench trail has been funded by the Norfolk Strategic Fund, specifically to encourage people back into town centre areas and to help support those businesses adversely affected by the impact of Covid-19.

The trail has been organised by the Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk in partnership with Stories of Lynn and Kick the Dust.

Duncan Hall, Assistant Director, said: "We are working hard to encourage people back into town once it is safe to do so.  This trail has been launched to coincide with the first lifting of restrictions, encouraging people to come out, and walk around King's Lynn, Downham and Hunstanton, to discover the benches and to learn a bit more about each area.  Then as we move towards the next trigger for lifting restrictions we hope more people will come to see the benches and visit shops and other businesses while they do."

The trail consists of seven benches, supplied by Wild in Art, who have produced trails in this country and abroad. Six of these decorated benches have been temporarily placed in landmark locations around King’s Lynn and one in Hunstanton. A further three benches have been decorated by local artists with designs submitted by local young people and these will remain as permanent features in King’s Lynn, Hunstanton and Downham Market.

A trail leaflet, available online, has been developed by the Kick the Dust group. They have contributed their ideas to how the trail will work, have chosen and researched the potential locations, and written the content, the aim is to get the maximum number of people engaged in the project.

Rachael Williams, Learning and Engagement Officer, said: "It has been a pleasure working with local artists and the Kick the Dust Group to get this project up and running and we are very pleased with the entries we received from the local community suggesting thoughts, ideas and designs for the benches.  We hope people like them as much as we do and we look forward to seeing photos with the benches on social media, tag us with #ExploreABookWN."

Designs and ideas were submitted by Betty Hill, Ciara McNulty, Chloe Drew, Casper Robinson, Daisy Holland, Jonathan Pick, Jason Holland, Calleigh Welham-Smith, Ivy Whitmore and Astrid Radanke. These have all been incorporated into the finished designs by local artists. Madeleine Eggleston from Downham Market,  who is a volunteer at Stories of Lynn and supports the Kick the Dust project, has produced the designs for the Downham Market and Hunstanton Benches and Savannah Andrews who is a member of Kick the Dust, has worked with Nicola Murray Woods to complete the King's Lynn bench.

The trail leaflet is available at https://www.storiesoflynn.co.uk/explore-a-book/