Commissioned by Barrow Borough Council in co-operation with
Capita Symonds; artist Janette Ireland has designed 2 mosaics
within Hindpool Park.
- At the entrance from Duke Street, the "Pride of Barrow" pebble mosaic depicts the
history of Hindpool & Barrow.
- On Blake Street entrance the Treasure Island labyrinth provides an
interactive piece, with LED lights.
Jasmine Jones worked with children from Brisbane Park, St
James' Schools as well as The Annex youth club, together they made
up games they would like to play, these include tig & chase,
matching pairs, finding the odd one out etc.
Read
the Hindpool Mosaic Diary.
Janette has
fabricated the mosaics out of natural pebbles from as far
away as Indonesia & Japan; to local Roose quarry pebbles
courtesy of L & W Wilson (Endmoor) Ltd..
The mosaics also contain slices of old Cumbrian railway line,
wheel hubs and pieces of eight treasure in stainless steel by Chris
Brammall. LED lights courtesy of Marl International and
Jackie Hunt.
Pride of Barrow
From the
steps on Duke Street you can see the mosaic ship launched into the
waves. The mast rises and with a champagne style flourish; as
the motto of James Ramsden 1
st mayor of Barrow said
“Semper Sursum” Always Rising; so the red iron ore coloured pebbles
rise like bubbles.
12,000 years ago Furness was a glacial valley, stones and
boulders were left strewn over the area. The pebbles in the
mosaic have come from all over the world; South America, China
& Japan, as well as the local Roose quarry.
The left of the mosaic shows the pebble beach, the shell forms
and the rope leads around the wheel castings through waves of the
sea, to the railway wheel at the top corner. Here you see
slices of old Cumbrian narrow gauge rail, as well as stainless
steel wheel hubs.
To the right of the
liner the rope leads into crops, as between 1330 & 1509 the
land round Hindpool was drained and wheat and barley were grown;
there were still allotments off Blake Street in 1873. The mosaic
has a representation of the field patterns from Tithe maps of 1842,
these fields had names like Wheat Close & Near Eight
Acre.
Hindpool has undergone many changes, and for the Park to be
built some houses were demolished. Stones from the site have
been carved into small “houses” and these are in the mosaic as
Hindpool Farm, cottages & tile works in the Tithe map.
The rope unwinds to form railway tracks, remembering the
relationship between the jute works, ropery and steel manufacturing
industries .
Barrow has the richest iron ore in Britain; there are 2 small
pieces of haematite for you to find.
Treasure Island Labyrinth
The Treasure Island design came out of workshops with local
school children & Barrow community artist Jasmine Jones.
The children drew many and wonderful sea creatures.
The labyrinth
design is based upon the growth of Barrow coming from the iron ore
deposits. The atomic structure of iron has a nucleus and 26
electrons around it.
Our labyrinth has a nucleus of Treasure Island, with treasure
chest, spade facing north, a string of stainless “pearls” and
stainless steel pieces of eight.
The “electrons” are mosaics inspired by the children’s sea
creatures. These are colourful, semi-precious polished
stones, with bright white Indonesian pebble patterned backgrounds;
surrounded by browns & greens co-ordinating with the Treasure
Island.
To emphasize the child like quality of the
images, there is a row of polished black Chinese pebbles around the
creatures.
Many of the creatures have LED lights for eyes.
- LED’s by Marl International, Ulverston
- Steel by Chris Brammall, Ulverston
- St James’ and Brisbane Park Schools, Barrow
- Commissioned by Barrow Borough Council 2006/7.