Locally designed gateway opened at Meadow Road Park, Kettering

12 December 2022

A new gateway designed by a pupil from Tresham College has been installed and officially opened at Meadow Road Park in Kettering.

Following a £150,000 improvement scheme at the Park, North Northamptonshire Council (under the former Kettering Borough Council) approached Tresham College to ask for possible designs from the College’s Art & Design students for a new gateway in the park from Meadow Road.

Following delays, due to the pandemic, the winning design by Jasmine Fuller has now been completed and installed. The new gateway is based on the sole of shoes and represents Kettering’s historic link to the shoe industry.

The Art and Design department at Tresham College in Kettering was approached by the council, who came into the college to introduce the competition to the students. The project was to design a new park entrance for the new Meadow Road Park. I was inspired to create a design based on the town’s heritage in the shoe making industry and wanted to reflect that into the design I drew up. I am so thrilled and honoured that my design has been chosen. This is a part of Kettering’s history and I’m proud to be a part of it.

This opportunity will really help me with my future career as a graphic designer and artist, and for this project to be included in my professional portfolio.Jasmine Fuller, who designed the new gateway

I really enjoyed visiting Meadow Road Park and meeting Jasmine, who designed a such a creative gateway that speaks of the history of our area. It was great to see the park being used by visitors, who will be able to enjoy Jasmine’s work for years to come.

The work on the park was originally started back in 2019 and today the completed park has plenty of facilities for the whole family. Now the gateway has been installed, the park’s regeneration has been completed and the team will be applying for a Green Flag award in 2023.Cllr Harriet Pentland, the council’s Executive Member for Climate and Green Environment

The park was originally redeveloped as part of the town centre’s wider regeneration and has been extremely popular with local residents. It is great that as well as modernising the facilities on site, we have been able to reflect the history of the town through the new gateway.Cllr Jason Smithers, Leader of the Council

The design was developed with Influence Landscape Planning and Design Ltd. to form a two-piece sculptural element which creates the distinct shape of a boot or shoe sole. 

In Spring 2021 Influence created a series of illustrations to describe how the forms would work together and progressed to construction drawings later the same year. The sculpture was fabricated by CR Services, Corby and a specialist corten effect powder coat colour, that matched the recently installed steel planters in Meadow Road, was produced and applied by Powdertech, Corby.

The sculptural gateway was installed on site in November 2022 by contractors Balfour Beatty and Kelbec Civils and can be seen at the Meadow Road entrance to the park.