River Colne Sculpture Trail - Commissions

The first of the three artworks has been installed!

This stone piece features traditional tools used in the textile industry, such as spinning wheels and shuttles.

Visit it at the bottom of the steps down from Britannia Road, Milnsbridge (Satellite Site 1).

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'Endless Pattern' is almost finished! The sculpture is still in the workshop in Nottingham, but here are a couple of sneak previews:

It will be installed on the main site (behind Somerfield) in the next few weeks.

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Landscaping work has been carried out at the Somerfield site, including planting heathers and two birch trees, replacing broken paving slabs, laying turf and cleaning up the brick and stonework.

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The third artwork will feature this poem about Milnsbridge written by a local resident:

Viaduct

The river Colne – gentle, discreet,

slices Market Street in two.

Parkwood mill, an imposing bulk,

refuses to let the light through.

The viaduct, keyholes to beyond,

looks brittle in its height.

The trains move like high wire acts,

borne of the birth of industrial might.

Yarn threads no longer from cloth,

fibres no longer from yarn.

Worsted fibres are no longer combed,

the river no longer swims with foam.

The digital age has come,

of keyboard, mouse and screen;

a different kind of grind,

and, like the river, labour is quiet and clean.

Neil Clarkson

This poem will be engraved into a stainless steel plaque, which will be set into a piece of Yorkshire stone and installed at the corner of Bridge Croft and Whitely Street (Satellite Site 2).

Raphael Daden at one of the sculpture sites in Milnsbridge

Nottingham-based artist, Raphael Daden, has been commissioned by the River Colne Sculpture Trail to produce three works of art in Milnsbridge.

Following the success of a television vote on ITV’s Calendar news programme in November 2006, the River Colne Sculpture Trail project won £50,000 of National Lottery funding for a project called Milnsbridge Matters.

The project's aim is to transform three overlooked sites in Milnsbridge and create some kind of focal point for the village centre.

3 Illuminated Cones, West Street, Central Brighton, 2001

Although Raphael is based in Nottingham, he has been making frequent visits to Milnsbridge throughout this commission.

Raphael works mainly with light and is aiming to create a landmark that works in the daytime and comes alive at night.

“It’s nice when you totally transform a space and feel that you have made a real contribution towards regenerating a public area that people will now enjoy”, he says.

Workshops

Raphael has been running workshops at Royds Hall and Crow Lane schools, where pupils came up with some fantastic suggestions for how the site behind Somerfield (at the corner of Scar Lane and Market Street) could be developed.

Some of the best designs featured in a display that toured venues including the Central Cafe, Somerfield and Milnsbridge Baptist Church.

'Milnsbridge Matters' display in the Central Cafe

Creative Panel

Meetings of the creative panel were a success. They gave local people and organisations a chance to share their ideas with Raphael and to be a part of the creative process.

Sites

These are the three Milnsbridge Matters sites:

www.raphaeldaden.co.uk

'Light is a material that you cannot touch; it draws you in, creating an intangible non-physical space or mass. By filling a space with light it can be brought to life.'
R. Daden

'Endless Pattern'

Raphael's sculpture design

The sculpture’s shape is similar to that of a mill chimney, with three identical sides.

It will be made of brushed stainless steel and perspex, with ‘windows’ cut in each side.

When it gets dark, a light will shine up the centre of the sculpture, with the colours slowly changing through the spectrum.

Raphael's sculpture design - day Raphael's sculpture design - night

See some of the images that have inspired Raphael's design:

Mill chimneys - Textile patterns - Lights from mill windows

To find out more about the inspiration behind Raphael's sculpture, read his Artist's Statement.