Knitted topper that captures cox’s gold medal celebration

TWO groups in South Stoke have made an Olympic post box topper in tribute to the Team GB men’s eight which won gold at the Paris Olympics.

The South Stoke Women’s Institute and Chat and Share group knitted figures of the athletes for the post box in the The Street, which was unveiled on Tuesday last week.

Harry Brightmore, 30, the cox who led the crew to gold last month, is from South Stoke and he came to visit the postbox to see it for himself.

Julie Mckay, who leads the chat and Share group, said she wanted to make the postbox topper to celebrate a home victory for the village. It depicts the moment when Harry stood up in the boat and lifted his arms in celebration after crossing the finish line.

It was knitted and crocheted by Rita Mann, president of the South Stoke Women’s Institute, Eve Thynne, Caroline Shelford, Megan Joslyn, Rosemary Stevens and Anne Moore.

They were inspired by Tony Grundy who runs the weekly sports podcast Null and Void and their village postman Dave Purnell. Mr Grundy, who has lived in the village for 40 years, said: “After they won gold I was so pleased and our postman Dave Purnell had jokingly said: ‘I want this post box painted gold’.

“I did some research and found that while lots of villagers would happily have grabbed a pot of paint, it was actually illegal. I talked further with Dave and he suggested a bonnet for the postbox. I contacted Rita Mann, who contacted anther group and it was done in no time. They captured the moment superbly and Harry was delighted.”

Mrs Mckay said it was the first time the two groups had worked together. She said: “It was only about three or four weeks of work because we wanted to get it done quickly while it was fresh in people’s minds.

“Everybody did their work at the right time. Getting the hair and faces finished was the last job and then Caroline (Shelford) had to get them into the boat. We carried it all down in little bits were very relieved that it all pulled together. We’re so pleased that Harry liked it.”

Ms Mann said: “We got the picture of Harry standing there with his famous pose with his arms up in the air, which is what I depicted of him in the boat. Between us it was a giant effort. Three or four of us made the figures up to the neck and then I sewed them up and made the heads and then a couple of others did the faces and the embroidery and the hair.

“I stitched the medals physically on to the bodies so that hopefully people won’t just someone come along and take a medal off.”

Ms Mann said it had been worth it. She said: “Harry’s reaction was on of genuine pleasure. Apparently, he very shortly sent a copy of the picture around to the rest of his teammates.

“South Stoke is a very small village. I think it’s the first time we’ve had an Olympic gold medalist. I don’t think there has been another one.

“We did extremely well in the Olympics, which I think we’re all genuinely proud of but to have someone local in the village who’s an Olympic medalist is — wow.”

Mrs Mann said the project had also received a positive reaction in the village.

She said: “We were pleased it has gone down well, South Stoke is a very friendly village. We all sort of meld together, so I think it’s just sort of given a little smile to everybody’s face.”