Knife angel could have home in Shropshire

The Knife Angel could be set on a site at the edge of the A5, according to the chairman of the centre that has created it.

A campaign for the sculpture to sit on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square has been launched by the British Ironwork Centre near Oswestry, where is was created.

But centre chairman, Clive Knowles, says he would like to see its permanent home close to the centre.

He said he wants to apply for planning permission for a permanent home for the work of art.

"It could become quite a tourist attraction and be Shropshire's Angel of the North," he said.

The knife angel, created by artist Alfie Bradley, is the culmination of a Save a Life, Surrender Your Knife campaign to help get knifes and other bladed weapons off the streets.

The British Ironwork Centre at Aston near Oswestry is leading a national campaign to get knives off the streets and has constructed the huge Knife Angel from the weapons given to it by police forces.

Police forces around the country have donated knives confiscated by officers and knife banks have been provided by the British Ironwork Centre in towns and cities in the UK as part of an amnesty.

The sculpture is being seen as a national monument against knife crime. Several mothers of victims of knife crime and other family members have engraved tributes on individual knives.

During a visit to the centre by the West Midlands Crime Commissioner David Jamieson earlier this month, Mr Knowles said gun banks were also being launched and another sculpture had been planned.

He has previously confirmed West Midlands Police will be the first police force in the country it builds a gun bank for.

Mr Jamieson praised the Ironwork Centre stand and confirmed a gun bank would be placed in the West Midlands soon.

Before an application for the Knife Angel to feature in Trafalgar Square can be made the sculpture has to be weighed.

Mr Knowles said that that is expected to be done next week, when it is craned out of the studio that has been its home while it has been created.

He added: "Once it is hanging in the air the crane can accurately weigh it and then we can put in a request for it to go on the fourth plinth in the capital."

He said that the BBC One show had been given exclusive rights to film the knife angel being lifted.