Blists Hill blacksmiths forging ahead with sculpture

More than 2,000 visitors went along to a Shropshire museum to see a new iron sculpture being created by artistic blacksmiths.

Blists Hill Victorian Town, near Madeley, hosted the annual meeting of the British Artist Blacksmiths Association last weekend.

The two-day event saw more than 100 blacksmiths get involved. Most of them came from across the UK with some travelling from Belgium, France and the United States.

More than 800kg of iron was used to create the new sculpture which will be installed at Enginuity, the design and technology centre in Coalbrookdale.

Some finishing work is still needed and it is hoped the sculpture will be at Enginuity by the end of the year.

The weekend also gave expert blacksmiths the chance to pass on their skills to the next generation. Members of the public were also given the chance to have a go.

Paul Gossage, director of marketing and PR at the Ironbridge museums, said: "It was a huge coming together of blacksmiths, with the majority of them from the UK.

"They have a meeting every year but this time it was unique in that we gave them a brief to create a new sculpture.

"They worked in gangs so that people could pass on their skills and it is important to them that the skills are passed from one generation to the next.

"It really showed the versatility of blacksmiths as it is a very creative process and they are artists in their own right.

"The visitors really enjoyed watching them and it went really well, with some spectacular work being produced."

The final concept for the sculpture took inspiration from the history of metalworking within the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site.

The design represents foundry boxes which were filled with a variety of forged decorated compositions.

The basic shape of the foundry boxes was pre-cut and folded beforehand but they were hot riveted together in full public view during the weekend.

BABA was formed more than 30 years ago to promote the highest standards of craftsmanship, design and commercial practice among artist blacksmiths in Great Britain.