Cauldron crafters’ pride at creation that wowed the world

The majestic centrepiece of the Games, built by metalworking firm Stage One in Tockwith near Harrogate, now sits at the southern end of the arena, ahead of the 100m finish line, where the giant bell was struck to start Friday’s epic curtain-raiser.

Simon Wood, the sales director of the firm which also made the giant Olympic rings hung from Tower Bridge, said it had been a privilege to be involved and there had been “a real buzz” among staff following glowing reviews of their work’s starring role.

“It has been fantastic to be involved with the London Olympics. The cauldron particularly was a real coup from our point of view because it’s the ultimate icon of the whole event - apart from the athletes, of course,” he said.

But a row erupted yesterday over the cauldron’s positioning inside the stadium, which means it will only be visible to those with tickets to events there, rather than being pitched above for all to see as it has been in previous Olympic tournaments.

LOCOG chairman Lord Coe said it was “not created to be a tourist attraction” and Mr Heatherwick also jumped to defend its positioning, which mirrors that of the last London Games.

“With the technology we now have that didn’t exist in 1948 it can be shared with everyone in the Olympic Park with screens,” he said. “We felt sharing it with the screens reinforced the intimacy within it. If it had been a huge beacon lifted up in the air it would have had to be bigger, and would have somehow not met the brief we discussed with Danny Boyle of making something that was rooted in where the people are.”

It took two months to build the impressive 28ft structure at Stage One’s hangar at Marston Business Park, which designer Thomas Heatherwick has described as a “Bond-style gadget workshop”. More than a billion people watched worldwide as its 204 copper petals were lit and then furled up to create one giant flame in the climax to Danny Boyle’s mesmerising Isles of Wonder.

A rehearsal took place in Tockwith before the cauldron was brought to London for another secret testing at 3am when volunteers had left the stadium and no helicopters could fly overhead. Staff at the firm - which has previously worked on the Athens Olympics opening ceremony and the Winter Olympics in Canada - were bound by strict confidentiality agreements not to discuss the project, codenamed Betty.

“It has been a major, major secret. That is the one thing they didn’t want anyone to know about because normally the cauldron is on top of the stadium,” said Mr Wood.

The flame was relit yesterday by London 1948 torchbearer Austin Playfoot, after it was taken from the cauldron and kept in a miners’ lantern while the structure was moved ahead of Friday’s athletics. Mr Playfoot said: “I never thought I would get this close to the cauldron, it brought me to tears when it lit up. It will be an incredible inspiration to the competing athletes.”

The cauldron will be dismantled after the Games and each of its petals given to the 204 National Olympic Committees to keep.