Public Monuments and Sculpture in Stoke-on-Trent & Newcastle-under-Lyme
Public Monuments and Sculpture in Stoke-on-Trent & Newcastle-under-Lyme
 

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Lucie Wedgwood Gates
at Burslem
 

Location:  Chapel Lane, Burslem - outside the Health Centre
Installed: 1998  
Commissioned by:
 
North Staffordshire NHS Trust
Architect: Philip Wooton
Blacksmith: Edmund Sveikutis

 


There are four separate panels in the gates,
each of which show figures outlined in steel and filled in with wire mesh
 coloured in red, blue, yellow, green, orange, brown and white.

The hands decorating the plate and shaping the pot commemorate the ceramics industry and its significance in the industrial development of the area. Other motifs - the mother holding her baby, the crawling infants, and the obviously healthy children playing children - allude to community health services, past and present, available within the health centre.

 

Inscriptions: (above the panels)

LUCIE WEDGWOOD GATES

(vertically, to the left of the left hand gate) 1938

(vertically, to the right of the right hand gate) 1998

Description:

There are four separate panels in the gates, each of which show figures outlined in steel and filled in with wire mesh coloured in red, blue, yellow, green, orange, brown and white.
The panel on the extreme left shows the arms of two people shaking hands, with a woman holding a baby in her arms beneath. The panel next to it depicts the hand and sleeve of someone painting a plate, with two babies (one black, one white) crawling beneath.
On the right hand side of the gates, the first panel shows a male and a female figure walking through a landscape. Neither of them are wearing clothes, and the woman has an oversized head. Above them are the two hands of a potter shaping a large pot.
To the right of this panel, two children are depicted playing football against a background of hills, with the sun and clouds in the sky above.

The hands decorating the plate and shaping the pot commemorate the ceramics industry and its significance in the industrial development of the area. Other motifs - the mother holding her baby, the crawling infants, and the obviously healthy children playing children - allude to community health services, past and present, available within the health centre.

 

Background:

The project was funded through the New Opportunities Fund's Healthy Living Centres initiative. This is concerned with the distribution of lottery funds focusing on education, health and the environment.

Many different sections of the community were involved in the design of the gates, including past and present health service staff, young people and the elderly.
This was considered an important element of the project, which views community consultation as a means of empowering socially isolated individuals and helping to create a sense of community in deprived areas.

 

 

   

Materials:

Part of work

Material

Dimensions

Panels (x 4)

Steel and wire mesh, painted each panel 3m x 1.35m

 


The panel on the extreme left shows the arms of two people shaking hands,
with a woman holding a baby in her arms beneath.

  

The panel next to it depicts the hand and sleeve of someone painting a plate,  with two babies (one black, one white) crawling beneath.

On the right hand side of the gates, the first panel shows a male and a female figure walking through a landscape.
Neither of them are wearing clothes, and the woman has an oversized head.
Above them are the two hands of a potter shaping a large pot.

 


To the right of this panel, two children are depicted playing football
against a background of hills, with the sun and clouds in the sky above.

 

 

Photos: Jan 2006

 

|  Index of all Stoke-on-Trent art |


questions/comments/contributions? email: Steve Birks

20 January 2006