CREDITON town centre will come alive again tomorrow, Sunday (July 25), with a collection of handmade brightly coloured flags, each one individually designed to represent a local shop or community group.

Now in its ninth year, the Crediton Flag Project doesn’t just put smiles on faces, but has a more serious purpose of increasing footfall on the High Street.

“The idea of decorating the High Street developed during the early planning meetings for the 2013 Crediton Festival,” said Rosemary Stephenson, who has co-ordinated the project since it started.

“We wanted to brighten up the town with some striking artwork which would celebrate the diversity of the town’s commercial and cultural life.

“We first considered installing printed banners across the High Street but after talking to the artists who led the Moretonhampstead Flag Festival, we realised we could engage more people and have more impact by installing handmade flags in the Christmas tree holders above the shops.

“Rather than printing banners in a factory we would encourage local shop owners and community groups to design and sew their own flags.”

Thus the Crediton Flag Project was born. With generous grants from Mid Devon District Council and Crediton Town Council, two artists were employed – Charlotte Turner and Bridget Arnold - an empty shop was rented on the High Street (the former Treloars Delicatessen, now Mucky Mutts) to be a workshop, tables, chairs and sewing machines borrowed, scissors, needles and thread bought and offcuts of brightly coloured ripstop nylon ordered from Cameron Hot Air Balloons in Bristol.

With the workshop fully equipped, local traders and groups were invited to book a slot to make their flag.

Although people were hesitant at first, interest in the workshops quickly grew, helped by the fact they were so visible on the High Street. People stopped to watch through the window, came in to explore further and before long were getting stuck in with the making process. Some people simply wanted to suggest a design and leave the artists or one of the volunteer helpers to make the flag. But others were keen to have-a-go at cutting and sewing the flag themselves, some using a sewing machine for the first time. After a month of all-day workshops, 40 stunning flags had been created, each one with a striking unique design.

It was not just the flags which were created by the community, but the two-metre wooden flag poles were also handmade by local people in a series of free weekend workshops run by the Tanglewood Project (http://tanglewoodproject.co.uk/ ), an organisation teaching rural skills to young people. It started by coppicing trees in a wood in Bickleigh and the branches then being crafted into flag poles using traditional tools and techniques.

The Tanglewood team also took on the daunting task of installing the flags along the High Street to herald the start of the Crediton Festival in June 2013.

The flags delighted locals and visitors throughout the six-week Festival and quickly attracted interest from further afield, sparking similar projects in Exeter, Taunton and Bovey Tracey.

The flags didn’t just cheer up the town centre, they had brought people together to learn new skills and, crucially, encouraged shoppers to linger longer on the High Street.

There were requests for the flags to return the following year, and what started as a one-off community arts project, has since become an annual event.

With a smaller budget, workshops have moved from the High Street to the Crediton Arts Centre, which generously offers space each year for free.

The project has continued to be led by artist Charlotte Turner, who helps people turn ideas into designs and either guides them through the making process or makes the flags herself.

She is helped every year by a team of amazing volunteer seamstresses, without whom the project couldn’t happen.

Although made of tough nylon, the flags do get damaged by the weather, so each year some have to be repaired or replaced. This year 32 flags were repaired and nine new ones made, some replacing flags from the original 2013 collection.

The Flag Project is organised by Crediton Town Team and funded by Crediton Town Council.

Charlotte Turner is a contemporary artist who lives near Crediton. You can see more of her work at: https://charlotteturnerartist.com/ .