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A giant knight in shining armour has been spray-painted on a wall next to Caerphilly Castle, thanks to the work of Valleys Street Art Project.

The massive mural was painted above Quality Carpets on Castle Street by Paul Shepherd, who is a member of the Valleys Street Art Project, which was set up by local artist Matt Dey earlier this year.

Matt told Caerphilly Observer he hopes this piece of work has “put us on the map”, and continued: It’s a wall I’ve had my eye on for a while. I went into the shop downstairs and asked if we could do something with it.

“They said go ahead and within weeks Paul put his name down to work on it. It’s the biggest and best piece we’ve ever done.”

The group tries to find ‘legal walls’ and then asks the owner if they can turn them into something worth looking at.

A legal wall is when a homeowner gives permission for someone to graffiti the outside wall of their house. This can be just one wall, or all walls. Any public facing wall can also be considered a legal wall.

Matt continued: “The first hurdle when doing this wall was the money needed. It was going to cost £350 for the scaffolding alone and there wasn’t enough in the GoFundMe for that.

“Fortunately, the company involved reduced the scaffolding fee and Quality Carpets were kind enough to donate £200 for us to do it.

“It still cost a lot however, and took Paul three days to complete it. It couldn’t have turned out any better though, it looks amazing.”

The project adopted the slogan ‘Your permission, No commission’ after launching in April 2023. It doesn’t cost the owner of the house anything, but they won’t have a say in what the art itself will be or look like. 

Asked if he had his eye on any other walls in the area, Matt said: “There are a few I’ve sized up, including another in Caerphilly town.

“We have lots of great artists who are ready to go and whilst the weather is bad it will be a good chance to look and save up money for equipment.

“It’s a wonderful thing for the area and the love the artists have for the project is great to see.”