Artwork could highlight Droitwich's hidden pirate past (From Worcester News)

Artwork could highlight Droitwich's hidden pirate past

2:20pm Tuesday 5th March 2013 in News

A TOWN art group is working to create a public mural to highlight Droitwich’s hidden history.

Members of Droitwich Arts Network were at Droitwich Library, Victoria Square, on Saturday, March 2 to consult people about a new instalment in Vines Park.

The new mural will replace last year’s display of a great white shark on the wall of Netherwich Basin.

The group, which is currently awaiting planning permission to begin bringing its idea to life, hopes to use the space to engage residents, especially children, in the creation of a public work of art, to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support and to help raise awareness of the diverse heritage of Droitwich.

It is hoped the mural site will become a permanent feature that could showcase a new design each year between St Richard’s Festival in May and the Salt Fest in September.

If given the go-ahead, this year’s mural will have a pirate theme to help highlight an often unknown link that Droitwich shares with Captain William Kidd.

Kidd, who was executed for piracy in 1701, was recruited by Richard Coote, the MP for Droitwich from 1688 to 1695, to captain privateer galley the Adventure.

Richard Coote was made the first Earl of Bellomont by the King in 1689 and appointed Governor of New York, Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire.

He was instructed to stop piracy on the east coast of America, the Bahamas, the Caribbean and the coast of India. It was Captain Kidd who was entrusted with capturing the pirates and bringing them to justice.

It is claimed that after reducing the opposition, Captain Kidd turned to piracy himself and accumulated a vast treasure.

It was then the Earl of Bellomont who finally had to engineer Kidd’s arrest in Boston. He was returned to England where he was convicted and hanged on May 23, 1701.