WANTAGE'S most famous son has found new fame through a portrait made of Lego bricks.

The Saxon monarch, whose statue looks over the town's market place, now has his face on show at the Vale and Downland Museum – composed of thousands of bricks.

The portrait followed last year's Wantage Lego Expo – at which visitors were invited to contribute bricks to the artwork.

A museum spokesman said: “We are so pleased to finally be able to unveil the completed Lego King Alfred mosaic from last year’s Wantage Lego Expo.

“We started the Lego expo in 2016 with a one-day event, which saw us welcome more than 1000 visitors. In 2018 and 2019 we ran it for the whole of the school holidays, when we had 15,000 and 12,000 visitors.

“Last year we gave visitors the chance to be a part of the museum for years to come by purchasing Lego bricks to add to our King Alfred mosaic.

“After the huge success of this we raised £506 in total which has gone towards the creation of our brand new King Alfred Gallery.”

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This year the museum was forced to cancel the expo due to the Covid-19 crisis, however, it is set to return next summer.

The mosaic is on display in the museum cafe but will be moved to the new gallery at a later date. The King Alfred Gallery is currently under construction and will be able to give a real insight of what life would have been like during King Alfred’s life.

The museum is open seven days a week.