Special sculpture will be placed at entrance to historic Cumbrian market town

A three-metre-high steel ram sculpture gift is to be placed at entrance of historic market town.

Renowned local sculptor Andy Kay, whose striking pieces of work can be seen across the world, has decided to give the piece to Kirkby Lonsdale.

It will sit on a ten-tonne stone plinth in the middle of the roundabout on the A65 close to Booth’s supermarket and is set to become a new landmark in the area.

“I am donating the sculpture because the town has been very good to me over the past 30 years,” said Andrew, owner of Andrew Kay Sculpture, which is based at Beckside Studio just outside Kirkby Lonsdale.

“Various people in the town helped me when I first set up the business. I am a great believer in the community and I wanted to give something back.

“In addition, in the wake of the tragic fire in Kirkby Lonsdale in December, this is going to be a small part of the regeneration of the town.”

The sculpture is set to be installed at the roundabout within the next few weeks.

Andy’s 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.''

“I hope the sculpture will be arresting – something that takes people’s minds off the mundane for a few seconds. Approaching from Kendal the ram will be looking, unfazed, directly at you with its front hooves raised a little. The roundabout is obviously circular so we have tried to make the ram interesting from every angle.”

The stone for the plinth was donated by Heidelberg quarries at Ingleton. Various planning permissions have been obtained from Westmorland and Furness Council and the Highways Agency.

“Several prominent people in the town and members of the town council have helped push the project forward, including Allan Muirhead BEM, Cllr Mike Marczynski and local photographer Cllr Robin Ree,” said Andy.

Andy graduated from Leeds University with a BA Hons in design in 1992. He then toured Scandinavia extensively on a travel scholarship. From this experience he acquired a respect for the pure, clean design ethos that is so apparent in Scandinavian design.

After spending time on an Arctic trawler working around the Lofoten Islands, he was a set designer for The Franz Kafka Theatre in Prague, before returning to England and establishing a sculpture studio near Kirkby Lonsdale in 1993.

The element Andy most enjoys about his job is when he is commissioned to create a new sculpture. “It taxes the brain and really interests me creatively. For example, I have created a one-off, three-metre-long leopard for Luc van Raemdonck, from Belgium, who has a conservation lodge in Namibia.

“I am living here in Kirkby Lonsdale and yet a leopard I created is in Namibia – I can hardly believe it!”