Pit-head sculpture ready to be unveiled
A £45,000 public art project celebrating the Black Country's industrial heritage is set to be unveiled in February.
A £45,000 public art project celebrating the Black Country's industrial heritage is set to be unveiled in February.
Sculptor Luke Perry has been working on the five-piece public art project for 14 months.
He said today that the exhibits will go on show to the public in Walsall Wood following an official opening on February 6. A 45ft-tall pit-head and winding gear will be the centrepiece of the project, which will also include metal silhouettes of characters from the area and sculptures.
These will form a trail across Walsall Wood.
The work is being funded by Walsall Council and is being carried out by Mr Perry's firm Industrial Heritage Stronghold.
Cradley Heath-born Mr Perry, a former Redhill School pupil of Lightwoods Road, Stourbridge, is creating the artwork in his Cradley Heath workshop.
He was commissioned to do the work in October last year.
He said: "Things are almost complete. The pit-head and winding gear has been finished off site and fits together perfectly.
"It weighs around 18 tonnes and has around 800 bolts in it and we believe it will be the largest mining monument in the world.
"All the materials that we have used have been sourced in the Black Country."
Mr Perry, who continued his studies at King Edward College in Stourbridge before going on to UCE in Birmingham to study fine art sculpture, has been working with Mark Hannon from Rushall on the silhouette designs, which are all cut out and ready to be assembled.
The artworks will be put in place in late January ready for the official opening, with work on the foundations already under way.
A plaque will be laid at the village green, off Lichfield Road, with 25 life-size cut steel and brass figures of real Walsall Wood people to be positioned on the green off Brooklands Road.
A fisherman sculpture is set to be created for the canal with the figure of a miner due to be produced for Walsall Wood High Street.
The opening ceremony will be held at noon on February 6, at St John's Church in Walsall Wood.
The pit-head will be put in on land at the rear of Oak Park leisure centre, off Lichfield Road.
