Wraps come off town's new gateway artwork

A PIECE of artwork has finally been unveiled on what was previously an overgrown and unsightly embankment on one of the main routes into Lutterworth.

Celebrated sculptor Graeme Mitcheson designed the feature depicting horses running into town which now adorns the Regent Court embankment where Stoney Hollow, High Street and Rugby Road meet.

It is part of a plan by the town council to make improvements to what it considers an important site. It has been working with Mantle Community Arts on the idea since 2011.

Mr Mitcheson was commissioned last year with a brief to create a modern, iconic art work symbolising and celebrating Lutterworth while also acknowledging its heritage.

And the £16,900 artwork - embedded into the embankment - centres on its history as a coaching town.

Seeds have also been sown around the feature to reinstate the grassed area and contractors will now maintain the site on a regular basis.

Acting town clerk Alison Wood said: “The embankment is an important site marking the southern gateway to the town and there had been concerns for some years that it had become overgrown and unsightly.

“Completion of the improvements had been identified as a town council priority since before the new council was elected in 2010.”

Mr Mitcheson is graduate of Loughborough College of Art and a member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors.

His previous high profile work includes the Bevin Boys’ Association memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Burton on Trent and Sir Bobby Robson sculpture in Newcastle.

He said: “Lutterworth was a bustling coaching town back in the day and it is this that I have chosen to reflect with the horses running into the town.”

The overgrown embankment on the southern entrance into town.

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