MARK-IT Trail: Saturday, 15 March 2025 – and after

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 unveilings 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 notables and the 100-odd crowd mingled in happy anticipation, the sun shone, the Spalding Folk Club played, the speeches were made and Sir John Hayes and Katherine Bettinson, Vice-President of the Lincoln Red Cattle Society, unveiled the sheep and cattle to spontaneous count-downs. Livestock had returned to the town centre.

When they got close to them, it was remarkable how nearly everyone stroked or touched the cattle. One small boy sat on the ground between them and looked up in wonder at their heads.

Back at the Pied Calf, the youngsters’ delight amidst the flock was a joy to see. Later, an elderly man could be seen stooped over one of the sheep, fingers intently exploring the rough fleece and smooth muzzle – seeing fingers, for the man was blind. Later still, a little girl broke from her mum and ran to the nearest sheep. “Wow!” she called, patting its head, then on to another. “Wow!” again …… and again …… until they’d all been patted. And, as the event wound down, the Transported team paused from dismantling their gazebo for a group photo on and amongst the Longwools. All told, it was “a joyous occasion”, said a visitor from Yorkshire.

Not that you’d have known it from the national press, where a few days later the “joyous occasion” had become a taxpayers’ money diatribe. “Town has beef “ with “cow statues,” said the Telegraph; “fury” said the Mail”; while the Express had “Locals slam council [over] papier mache” statues.

“You shouldn’t believe everything you read in the press,” it’s said – especially if the source is half-a-dozen comments picked out of Facebook. Then taken up by a press agency and fed to other journalists, who, remote from the actual event, were ready to twist it to meet their paper’s pre-determined agenda.

The Chairman got the Express to apologise for its papier mâché nonsense and other misinformation, rewrite its article and include his rebuttal in full. The fact is that grants from the government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund must be spent only on a) People and Skills, b) Supporting Local Businesses and c) Local Communities and Places, the last including “tourism, culture and the arts”. Shared Prosperity money simply cannot go on hospitals, schools or “crumbling roads and potholes.”

A month after the unveiling the Flower Parade brought in crowds of visitors. Late morning I sat under The Pied Calf tree for an hour and watched. The sheep were popular. Five adults posed for photos standing by or seated on them; ten children, all sitting. And 64 other people interacted with the sculptures in some way – photographing the whole flock, pausing and talking about them, patting, resting a shopping bag, sitting, stroking them as they passed.

…… No-one seemed to be slamming the Council.

John Charlesworth

Why it Matters

As the local press reported nothing said at the event, for the record the Chairman outlined the history of livestock marketing in Spalding; Sir John Hayes as below; Katherine Bettinson spoke about the Lincoln Red Breed; and the sculptor set doubts at rest by saying it was perfectly OK to sit on the sculptures if one wanted.

“AS TODAY we mark a notable day in our town, I am mindful that – personally and collectively – we are what we remember.

Through the emblems of remembrance, the sights and sounds of bygone days are brought to life.

Here in Spalding, from the settlement’s beginning, goods have been brought to market to be bought and sold. So it was with livestock, traded in the streets in which we walk today for centuries until 1938. Then the covered dedicated live-stock market was built, which continued until 1992, when Chris Longstaff tells me he sold the last beast there.

Today, through public art we reference that history and by doing so affirm the sense of place from which each of us derives a particular sense of identity and the feelings of worth it spawns.

Domestically, the art with which we surround ourselves in our homes is chosen personally, but public art is obligatory, as all of us are compelled to view it during everyday life.
It is for this reason that public art matters; for, once established, it becomes unavoidable, and thus compulsory. Seen day in day out in the place we call home, it colours the shared environment we all enjoy.

So. I congratulate the Civic Society on this initiative – because public art which is redolent of local history matters most of all.”

Rt. Hon. Sir John Hayes MP