MARK-IT: Market Day
It was thanks to a successful application for funding to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund that we were able to embark on the most ambitious phase of the MARK-IT Trail. We were awarded a grant of £43,000, and together with our partners Transported, we advertised two commissions in February 2024 via outlets targeted at professional artists such as Arts Jobs supported by the Arts Council and on social media. One was to recall the sheep auctions that took place in the Sheep Market. The second was recall the cattle market on New Road.
Commission criteria
The MARK-IT Trail aims to increase awareness and appreciation of the town’s heritage and celebrate Spalding’s market in its livestock heyday (also the annual hiring fair), along with South Holland’s present-day importance to the nation’s food supply.
- The two commissions were to produce two new pieces for the centre of Spalding.
- The successful Artist was expected to contribute to a public engagement programme, alongside Spalding Civic Society members and the Transported Arts Team, to make maximum value from the project.
- Commissioned artists were expected to work with the partners to provide information and designs to assist in getting planning permission and local authority endorsement.
- The completed artworks would require minimal maintenance, and any works needed would need to be specified from the outset, allowing the commissioners to understand long-term implications and liability.
- The artworks were to be sited in the centre of a busy Market town, so the artworks would need to be safe and robust, and would be expected to last for 20 plus years, so detailed specifications for materials, fabrication, siting, and installation were required for the shortlist phase of the selection process.
Winning artist – Graeme Mitcheson
Graeme has been creating significant and large-scale works for the public realm all over the UK for over 25 years. His first significant individual commission was for Astra Zeneca Pharmaceuticals in Loughborough in 1999, where he created “Cures”, a 2-metre tall, hollow white limestone column with a spiralling inscription of more than 3,000 carved letters. Since then, other major works have included a 3-metre tall mussel sculpture for Conwy Quay in North Wales, which is a world heritage site, a 22m-long concrete earthwork on an embankment in Lutterworth, Leicestershire. He has since completed major memorials for the Bevin Boys, the Scouts and for the Naval Service at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. The latter was shortlisted for the PMSA Marsh Award for excellence in Public Art 2016. Graeme has created several stone sculpture trails, while one of his most recent projects was a series of interpretative sculptures installed in the grounds of Caernarfon Castle in North Wales.
Graeme lives in Leicestershire and has a website which showcases his work.
Graeme didn’t just propose a sculpture of one sheep; he proposed an entire flock! That was one of the deciding factors, as his proposal reflected the reality of how sheep were driven to the market by their shepherds. They were based on the Lincoln Longwool breed of sheep, now considered a rare breed, but once commonplace throughout the county.
The Lincoln Longwool
Information supplied by the Lincoln Longwool Sheep Breeders Association.
The Lincoln Longwool is a British native – a cross between the Leicester and the coarse native sheep of Lincolnshire –and consequently the breed thrives in our climate. The largest of our native breeds, it is rather rectangular in shape, deep-bodied and wide, and with a head larger and bolder than in other long-wooled breeds.
Lincolns have been bred for both meat and wool. Their wool has always been of primary importance, with ewe fleeces weighing between 12 and 20 pounds (5.4 – 9 kg). Annual shearing is essential. The wool is coarse and somewhat hair-like and the heavy locks tend to twist into spirals towards their ends. The fleece is clear white and has a definite lustre. However, when cotton largely began to replace wool their numbers declined. It is now a heritage breed of great national importance.
They are thoroughly domesticated and, despite their size, very docile. They can easily be trained to come to the sound of a rattling feed bucket, making them easy to manoeuvre, without the need for a dog.
Lincoln ewes have strong maternal instincts and make good mothers. With easy lambing and milky ewes they produce excellent lambs for the market and fit well into a more sustainable way of farming.
What they are made of
Six of sheep are carved out of six blocks of Cadeby Limestone and one block of Kilkenny Limestone. The final weight of each completed sheep is around 800KG, with the smaller black sheep weighing a bit less.Â
How they were made
The below video posted by Graeme on You Tube shows the different techniques deployed to turn the blocks of stone into a flock of sheep.
How they were installed
On 18 December members of Spalding & District Civic Society met up with members of the Transported team and sculptor Graeme Mitcheson to mark out the proposed locations for the sheep. A survey of the ground was made to ensure that there were not any utilities below ground, and pedestrian flows were studied to ensure that the sheep would not block access for wheelchairs or pushchairs. The seven sites were chosen and marked.Â
On Sunday 9 March 2025, the sheep along with the cattle were delivered to Spalding and lifted carefully into position, whilst members of Spalding & District Civic Society and team members from Transported Team on hand to direct traffic & pedestrians whilst the installation was taking place.
How they were unveiled
After the excavating , the foundations, the clutter removal and repaving, the flat-bed journey from Leicestershire, the aerial transfers, and the installation, the day of the unveiling, Saturday 15th March 2025 had arrived.
In the final week, thanks to a Council magic wand and hard work from contractors beyond the call of duty, previous niggling obstructions just melted away. The last-minute possibility of disruption by vegan activists did not materialise and all went smoothly.
The ceremony took place in Hall Place, where the notables and the 100-odd crowd mingled in happy anticipation, the sun shone and the Spalding Folk Club played. The formal speeches were made by our Chair, John Bland, local MP Sir John Hayes and Katherine Bettinson, Vice-President of the Lincoln Red Cattle Society and the sculptor Graeme Mitcheson.
Both groups of sculptures were unveiled to spontaneous count-downs. Livestock had returned to the town centre.
