Scouts honour Market Drayton-based troops

Scouts, guides and brownies have helped create murals in honour of the 1st Battalion, The Royal Irish Regiment, which will soon be handed the Freedom of Market Drayton.

The two 8ft x 4ft paintings have taken up to 30 children three months to complete and have been put up on the front of an empty shop in Church Street.

Click on the image to the right to see more pictures

Children aged seven to 17 have been working on the display in honour of the regiment, which has been based at Clive Barracks, in Tern Hill, for about five years.

The paintings will stay in place until after the regiment is awarded the honour and parades through the town on April 21.

The soldiers will parade around the town twice and the official Granting Ceremony will take place outside the library in Cheshire Street.

Councillor Mark Whittle, of Creative Drayton, said a lot of hard work has gone into the project.

He said: "Scouts, girl guides, brownies and adventure scouts have all been working on this.

"They fly colours and flags at parades and some of them are members of families of the Royal Irish so they wanted to show the pride of the town. I did the original sketches, we scanned it onto the boards and the youngsters painted it. All the pictures have been done by the kids."

Mr Whittle said he expected the pictures to be up for about six to eight months.