New three-metre-high landmark for historic market town

Kirkby Lonsdale has a new landmark which its creator hopes will reflect the heritage of the town and serve as a symbol for civic pride.

The three-metre-high steel ram sculpture has been installed in the middle of the roundabout on the A65 close to Booth’s supermarket at the entrance of the historic Cumbrian market town.

It is the gift to Kirkby Lonsdale of renowned local sculptor Andy Kay, whose striking pieces of work can be seen across the world.

“I am delighted it is now in place,” said Andy, the owner of Andrew Kay Sculpture, which is based at Beckside Studio just outside Kirkby Lonsdale.

“There has been a very positive reaction and within just a few days of the installation there have been more than 700 people liking posts about the sculpture on the We are Kirkby Lonsdale Facebook page.”

Andy donated the sculpture to give something back and thank the town for its support to his business over the past 30 years.

“I also hope that it will play a small part in the regeneration of Kirkby Lonsdale in the wake of the tragic fire in the town in December. People have pulled together to support and help each other and businesses in the town.

“I hope the ram might serve as a symbol for civic pride and community spirit in Kirkby Lonsdale.”

Andy’s steel sculptures feature a variety of animals and birds but he chose the ram partly because Kirkby Lonsdale has old drovers’ roads, along which farmers used to bring their hill rams and sheep to the town’s livestock market.

“Kirkby Lonsdale Rugby Club is a prominent part of the town and its logo is a ram,” said Andy. “We are also close to the border of the Yorkshire Dales, whose national park authority has a ram’s head on its logo.”

Installation of the ram took place in a single evening. Rob Mackereth and his team, from machine plant hire and groundwork company G Mackereth and Son, of Whittington, prepared the ground by laying 20 tonnes of compacted hardcore.

Michael Griffiths and his team from Bravo Power Limited, of Melling, used a Hiab crane to lift into place a ten-tonne stone plinth, donated by Heidelberg Quarry at Ingleton. “We then basically glued the ram on to the plinth using stone resin,” said Andy.

Twenty tonnes of topsoil were added to create a mound and grade the sculpture into place. This will be planted with wildflower seeds.

The installation took about five hours. At the end, former neighbours of Andy’s from when he lived at Low Biggins brought along tea and biscuits for all those involved.

“The weather was first class but at 3am the following morning there was torrential rain,” said Andy “I was lying in bed envisaging all the topsoil running down towards the bridges so I got up at 5am to take a look and it was absolutely fine!”

He added: “I’d like to thank the companies which installed the sculpture because they did a great job and did the work more or less for cost,” said Andy.

He also praised Cllr Mike Marczynski, deputy chair of Kirkby Lonsdale Town Council, who had played a big part in helping to bring the sculpture project to fruition by liaising with planning and highway authorities.

Cllr Marczynski said: “What is amazing is the sheer power Andy has designed into this sculpture. As I said to him the other day: ‘It’s alive!’ What greater praise can be given for such a fabulous gift to the town by Andy, made even more poignant after the awful fire of last December and the necessary recovery of Kirkby Lonsdale. There’s no finer place to live.”

Andy said he hoped the ram would become a landmark. “When families are heading to the Lake District children might ask ‘when will we be there?’ and parents can say ‘look, we are at the Kirkby Lonsdale ram’.

“I also hope when people spot the sculpture it will transport them out of their everyday lives just for a moment. As someone said on Facebook: ‘It will just bring joy to me every time I pass it’.”

Andy’s three-dimensional sculptures are mostly of wildlife indigenous to the United Kingdom, including hares, herons, deer.

He aims to capture what he calls the ‘moment’ of an animal - for example, that second when a hind has been grazing, hears a noise made by someone and looks up at them.

“I aim to keep the sculptures minimal, using as little steel as possible, while still depicting the skeleton, the musculature and the sinews of the creature and getting that sense of life into it,” he said.

The sculptures work well as bold silhouettes on a hillside or small mound or can be set more subtly with foliage and woodland behind them

They can weigh from 20kgs for a hare up to half a tonne for an Iberian bull and Kirkby Lonsdale’s ram. Clients can order various animals and birds or commission a one-off piece of work.

Clients have included Thwaites brewery, for whom Andy created a commemorative sculpture of a dray wagon being pulled by two magnificent shire horses for its new headquarters and a Swiss hotelier, who commissioned a watchful stag and an alert hind which are sited outside Chetzeron, his boutique hotel in the Crans-Montana alps of Switzerland.

Other clients have included prominent public figures and organisations, including Richard Curtis and Emma Freud; Sir Tom Stoppard and Lady Sabrina Guinness; comedian John Bishop; Hong Kong Golf Club; English Heritage and the National Trust.

One of his latest projects has been sculpting a Zealand heavy horse, which is heading to the Netherlands to sit outside a factory which makes maritime electric motors.

“The owner started off his business many years ago winding small motors and they now build 600 horsepower electric motors,” said Andy. “The sculpture is, in effect, a single horsepower standing outside the factory as a nod to the past.”

As well as Andy, his business includes his wife Anneley as co-director and two members of staff Tilly Mills and Kurt von Rugemer.