How the design of Hindpool Urban Park reflects the history of the area.
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.
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.
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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 1st 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 2006/2007.