HIS Grace, The Duke of Westminster will officially unveil the new mosaics in Chester’s Roman Garden tomorrow.
Chester Renaissance and Cheshire West and Chester Council, in association with the Chester Civic Trust commissioned Gary Drostle, a mosaic artist to design and install three mosaics for the gardens on Vicars Lane..
Professor Steven Broomhead, chairman of Chester Renaissance said, “Much of Chester’s heritage is being carefully refurbished and restored which will ensure Chester’s vision of being a ‘must see’ destination is achieved and protected for the future.
“This phase of the project has been delivered in partnership and is partly funded by the Civic Trust – which demonstrates the importance we all place on protecting our heritage.”
The circular mosaic at the entrance to the Roman Gardens was initiated by Chester Civic Trust to commemorate its Golden Jubilee in 2010.
Vice-president Stephen Langtree, chairman of the trust's Jubilee Committee said: "We wanted to leave a permanent legacy of our special anniversary and are very pleased to have worked in partnership to achieve this beautiful addition to the Roman Gardens."
The second which contains ‘The Four Seasons’ design is based on a well-known mosaic from Chebba now in the Bardo Museum in Tunis.
The third hypocaust mosaic is a two dimensional mosaic, fitting within the existing York stone paving to give the impression that the mosaic has been partly excavated in situ.
It is a reproduction of the Ostia style mosaic unearthed in Chester city centre which was laid within the Roman bath house.
The original mosaic was destroyed at the time of the contractors excavations in the 1960s. The sea-creature has been represented whole, based on similar mosaic designs, whilst the main areas of interest from the archaeological evidence are used to create the fragments.
It will also act as an education tool demonstrating the design and scale of the bath house mosaic.
The Roman Gardens were re-designed in 2000 with generous donations from the estate of Sally, late Duchess of Westminster. His Grace the Duke of Westminster re-opened the community garden.
