A MAJOR roof repair project at Grouville Parish Hall is nearing completion.
And Constable Mark Labey said the hall would be adorned with new artwork dedicated to Grouville’s beloved peacock, Henry Percy, who died in a hit-and-run during the Christmas break and was buried in January in a parish funeral.
A class of Year 1 students at Grouville School created the tribute to the exotic bird by drawing around their hands on colourful paper before sticking the artwork onto a representation of Henry.
Mr Labey said that when Year 1 teacher Mrs Kellett approached him offering to give the painting to the parish, he said “Hell, yes” and took it straight to the framers.
He added that he was planning on putting the artwork up in the parish hall in time for its reopening.
Mr Labey said he hoped that the hall would be ready by Easter and that the work on the roof itself was now “pretty much completed”, along with a new lighting system. The “enormous” scaffolding might not be removed by then, he added, which would push back the date when the building could reopen.
He said he had already been on the roof to look at the repairs, which he called “a work of art”.
He added that he was proud to have experts in heritage buildings working on the project, Paul Maguire and Marcus George of W Horn Ltd.
Henry Percy’s death and subsequent funeral was covered by the media in Jersey and by national newspapers in the UK, and Mr Labey said he had even received an inquiry from a French news agency about the peacock.
“It’s all gone a bit nuts,” he said. “He was absolutely gorgeous.”
