A SCULPTOR has created life-sized bronze statues of Lake District icons Beatrix Potter and John Ruskin, which visitors will be able to sit next to.
Alan Ward, who works from his studio at Lancaster Castle, was commissioned to make the statues. Beatrix Potter currently sits alone outside Lancaster Castle, but once the mould for the John Ruskin statue has been forged in molten bronze, he will join her. Visitors can sit next to Beatrix Potter, and eventually John Ruskin, at the castle. In three months' time, the piece will be moved to the Damson Dene Hotel in the Lyth valley.
Despite the two never meeting in real life, Alan wanted to put the two iconic figures together as writers united by the Lake District.
69-year-old Alan has been sculpting since he went to Liverpool Art College as a teenager. He said: "I have been a sculptor for many years, but have been in my Lancaster Castle studio for about eight years.
"Before Covid, I held classes in calligraphy, lettering in stone and sculpture. The finished sculpture of Beatrix Potter and John Ruskin will be finally sited in Damson Dene Hotel and they will be displayed around a bench for visitors to sit on.
"It is to be an encounter with her and John Ruskin. They didn't meet in real life but I wanted them to meet each other. So that they are looking at each other, he is standing at one end of the bench."
"While waiting for John Ruskin to come back from the Castle Fine Art foundry in Wales, Beatrix is being displayed at Lancaster Castle, close by where she was created, for visitors to enjoy and there have been queues of people waiting to have selfies taken with her."
READ MORE: Cumbria Sculptors planning outdoor sculpture trail at Rydal Hall
Alan said that it takes about three months to create the mould, and then it is sent to a foundry using the 'lost wax process.' Despite him more often using stone or clay to create his sculptures he said that this was his fourth life-sized bronze statue and that he 'really does enjoy it.'
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here