A sculpture celebrating Featherstone’s mining heritage and its future.
The Hope and Heritage sculpture is a powerful tribute to the men, women, and children who worked in Featherstone’s local collieries and the families who supported them. It stands as a reminder of the community’s immense contributions to the nation’s industrial strength.
The artwork features two halves of a refurbished pit wheel. One wheel captures the memories and resilience of the community, while the other represents hope and optimism for Featherstone’s future.
Luke Perry, the renowned sculptor behind this piece, expressed his pride in contributing to Featherstone’s cultural landscape:
“Working in Featherstone is always a fantastic experience as we share a passion for representing the overlooked but incredibly important working people of our industrial past and present. As an artist it is my particular mission to see that social struggle, civil rights, environmental issues and equality are represented in my work, with Hope and Heritage we have managed to do all of these by using the inspiring words of both the younger and older generations of Featherstone.
The wheels represent both memories of the working past of the town and the incredibly progressive hopes of its young people. In fact, the words of the younger generation make the artwork look almost like protest art (of which I wholeheartedly approve).
Featherstone continues to be a town whose hopes are socially driven, kind, brave and revolutionary. I am proud to be able to make works that represent these wonderful human traits.”
Commissioned by Featherstone Town Council with support from Wakefield Council.
Photo credits: Image 1 – Jan Sharp : All other images – Beam.
