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The Higham Ferrers coronation art competition entries have been assessed, judged and the results are in with three winners out of almost 500 submissions that show off the town’s talented schoolchildren.

With the competition launching in March, people had been asked to create a portrait of a king of queen who reigned from medieval times to the present day.

Ophelia Redpath, 2021 Sky Landscape Artist of the Year and judge for the competition, said: “The children have done brilliantly and listened to what they were asked to do by their teachers.

Ryan Bourke scooped the top prize in the 9-10 age category with his portrait of Queen Elizabeth I

"They had a unique way of doing things.”

Both judges (which also included Nina Wilson from event sponsors Wilson Browne Solicitors) were at the prizegiving at Chichele College on the final day of the coronation celebrations, calling the competition a ‘real joy’ when the mayor, Cllr Nigel Brown, congratulated the winners and presented them with certificates, gifts and cash prizes.

Carol Fitzgerald, chair of the Chichele College Management Committee, said: “It was so wonderful and quite overwhelming.”

She also added that it was ‘quite a big task to organise’ as there were a total of 473 entries from five local schools.

Evie Murphy with her winning portrait was of Queen Elizabeth II down the decades.

The winners in each of the three age groups were:

Jessica Blenkhorn of Chichele Primary School (7-8 age group)

Ryan Bourke of Higham Ferrers Junior School (9-10 age group)

Evie Murphy of Higham Ferrers Junior School (11+ age group)

Winnners of Higham Ferrers children’s coronation art contest announced as judges label competition a ‘real joy’