Gone missing: ECRA’s latest finial celebrates their presence on Farthing Downs

Have you seen this metal snail?

The latest finial on the East Coulsdon Residents’ Association Art Trail was positioned in pride of place on the “Welcome to Coulsdon” sign to the south of Lion Green Road just last month.

But the finial of the Roman snail has vanished – presumed stolen.

The carefully crafted metalwork is estimated to have cost up to £600, paid for through Croydon Council from the UK Prosperity Fund.

The Roman snail has been victim of a Coulsdon smash. And grab.

“A lorry backed into the sign and dislodged the finial. It dropped to the bottom of the pole,” Charlie King, the chair of ECRA, told Inside Croydon.

“When we went back to put it back the next day, it had disappeared.”

King fears that some opportunist had taken the artwork for scrap metal.

The Roman snail finial is the 14th Coulsdon finial. Finials are small, stylised metal models, placed at the top of signposts and lampposts around Coulsdon town centre, commemorating the history of Coulsdon and Smitham Bottom.

The subjects are selected from a list of suggestions that were put together from a public consultation by East Coulsdon Residents’ Association.

It has been an ECRA project for the last six years.

• Obviously, if you have any information on the whereabouts of the Roman snail finial, please call the police on 101, or contact East Coulsdon RA at info@eastcoulsdon.co.uk
• We’ve got it mapped. Click here for the Inside Croydon guide to the Coulsdon Art Trail

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