Fred's fitting words bring Southwater art to life

Remarkable Fred Foley penned the line that adorns the silver leaf-themed sculpture near the new Southwater One building.

The Homer Lake Primary School pupil said his words "the beautiful landscape of Telford is a prize to the eyes" came from the heart.

"I was just looking at the area of Telford and thinking about how beautiful it can be," he said.

"You can be in a bustling metropolis and lovely green woodland in minutes.

"I picked these words about how I felt about Telford and they came from the heart."

Fred said he was "shocked" to find out his words had been chosen out of 300 entries just the day before the sculpture was unveiled.

"It didn't hit me until a couple of hours afterwards," he said.

"I just realised what I had achieved and I felt so proud.

"Some of my friends didn't believe me when I told them but when they did they were really proud of me."

The impressive piece is the first of three leaf and pebble themed silver columns designed and made by Planet Art.

They are the first hint of the unique environment that is going to be created around the buildings in the Southwater development.

This commissions are sited at two entrance gateways to the Southwater developments, one near Telford Ice Rink, the other near the new Southwater One building.

Councillor Bill McClements, cabinet member for finance and enterprise, said: "This is such an exciting time for Telford with the opening of the first phase of Southwater set to happen gradually over the next three or four months.

"I think the art looks absolutely fantastic and it will really complement all the other developments. We have worked hard to ensure a unique development and the environment around the buildings is just as important as the buildings themselves.

"The other two commissions are being installed in the coming weeks so wont be visible to the public just yet. These have also involved local people working on Southwater's public realm."

Artists Julie Edwards and Ron Thompson from Planet Art have been working on the two gateways for the past nine months.

They worked extensively with community groups who inspired the works at the design stage.

More than 700 local people were involved including schools, colleges, over 65s, open workshops at Galleries Live in the main shopping centre.

From these workshops, Planet Art developed a series of proposals which were put forward to the steering group before going ahead with creating the works.

Each of these pieces incorporates words from local people who contributed to a separate project linked to the l artwork.

They stand four metres in height, are made from stainless steel and weigh 1,700kg each.

There are more than 600 leaves in the first sculpture to be unveiled. To get the patterning on the pieces used up over 300 grinding discs and hundreds of hours work.

Planet Art worked closely with Midlands-based fabricators SAP which specialises in the making of stainless products.