Bagnalls Apprentice Champions Historic Project at Leeds Civic Chamber
14 February 2025
A second-year Bagnalls apprentice, and runner-up of the PDA Trophy Junior Competition 2024, Owen Sheldon recently led an important, historic project at Leeds Civic Chamber. Owen coordinated a team of Bagnalls painters to create and paint a number of plaques commemorating successful women throughout history.
Bagnalls collaborated with Leeds City Council on six plaques made from MDF with laser-engraved lettering. This project was particularly meaningful to Leeds as it addresses a lack of female representation in the existing plaques, which predominantly acknowledge the historical roles of male councillors. The new plaques expertly painted by Bagnalls now offer more balanced representation for the City of Leeds.
Leeds City Council needed an effective solution to produce six new plaques that was both cost effective and weight restrictive. So, instead of using stone, the plaques were made using MDF. The council knows that our painters have the skills to decorate the plaques with specialist painting techniques that mimic stone and complement the heritage look of the other plaques in the chamber.
The project took place within Leeds Civic Hall. We had access to the chambers for the majority of the project and, when access wasn’t possible, we worked on the plaques at our nearby Leeds branch.
Owen led the painting project brilliantly, with input from Contracts Manager, Tom Waudby (who also began his career as an award-winning apprentice). Other operatives involved were painter Rob Bray and first-year apprentice Eadie Catterill, who helped apply the base coat to the MDF boards and move them to and from the buildings.
The main goal of the project was to transform the plain MDF boards into pieces that looked like aged stone. To do so, we primed the boards with Johnstone’s MDF primer, then used Johnstone’s Coverplus matt emulsions in a combination of grey, beige and brown to achieve an aged stone effect.
Initially, our operatives created a blended colour background, then added stippling using sponges and badger hair softeners to achieve an authentic, weathered appearance. Once the stone effect was complete, the lettering and border were painted with two coats of Ardenbrite metallic gold. Three shades of gold were used to help achieve a heritage look.
The customer is over the moon with the finished plaques and agrees that they are a fitting tribute to the many women who have served Leeds over the past 150 years. Richard Jackson of Leeds City Council said, “The plaques look amazing and everyone is so pleased. I will ensure that Bagnalls gets a formal mention at the grand unveiling.”