Hereford bull is painted on outside of historic pub in Wootton Wawen
THE landlord of an historic pub in Wootton Wawen says he’s been made to feel like a criminal for painting a bull’s head on the side of a listed building.
Martin Peel has run the Bull’s Head – a Marston’s pub – for three years now and recently commissioned a local artist to paint an eight-foot high mural of a Hereford bull but he’s now fallen foul of planning laws and been instructed to remove the image from the pub which is 500 years old and Grade II listed.
Stratford District Council, planning enforcement officer wrote to Mr Peel last Friday and told him the mural has got to be removed as soon as possible within four weeks at the latest as he hadn’t got listed building consent; retrospective planning permission is not an option.
“I didn’t know I needed consent,” Mr Peel told the Herald. “I’d never heard of it before. It was meant to be eye-catching, a bit of fun for the regulars and a way of advertising the pub and get new customers in. I had a visit from the district council’s planning enforcement officer on 10th June and he wrote to me telling me to remove the mural and that unauthorised work on a listed building is considered a criminal offence and if it isn’t removed formal enforcement could take place. I didn’t like being accused of being a criminal. We’ve put so much TLC into this pub over the last few years. It’s all a bit pathetic really.”
Mr Peel is an aircraft engineer by profession and got into the pub trade within the last few years but still works with aircraft but neither he nor the artist he hired had any idea about needing permission.
The artist who painted the bull is Phil Taylor of Phil Taylor Signs in Leamington who’s been in business for over 42 years.
“In all that time I’ve never once had to ask for planning consent when painting signs or murals and I think the Bull’s Head mural is probably the best one I’ve ever done and the first I’ll have to remove,” Phil Taylor said.
“I’ve affectionately called it Eddy Bull which is a play on the word – edible - because the pub serves a wide range of food including British and Thai. I use sign writing enamel and I start with a sealer coat and then paint the mural on afterwards which is also fade proof. If it has to go I’ll just have to paint over it. I wanted to attract customers and when I was painting it people stopped their cars and took selfies of the mural. 1900 years ago, the Romans used to put signs up outside their pubs to let people know there was a pub there. I was doing the same thing and wanted to put the WOW into Wootton Wawen,” Mr Taylor added.
A spokesperson for Stratford District Council said the council did not comment on live enforcement cases.