Town's art trail celebrates biscuits and trains

A town's public art trail, inspired by local heritage, includes a red circle sculpture based on round biscuit tins.

Art Around Huyton is a project created by artist Martin Heron based on the community's recollections of people, products and events that shaped the Knowsley town.

The Family Circle is a red steel gateway sculpture which lights up at night, positioned at the start of the trail at the railway station.

It is inspired by the biscuit tins of the Huntley & Palmer factory, which opened in the town in 1955 to manufacture popular lines like Cornish Wafers.

Until its closure in 1983, it was a major employer in the town, with many people reminiscing about the factory during Heron's research.

"One lady said that once when they were packing the biscuit tins they had one returned because they found a fingerprint in the biscuit, and it stopped the whole production line," he said.

"I really liked how someone had left their mark and it had caused all this disruption."

Heron said that people also shared memories of their parents coming home from work at the factory with bags of broken biscuits.

"Biscuits became one of the linking things for the whole project," he added.

The people of Huyton were invited to attend public casting workshops and bring objects that told their personal stories from life in the town.

They were then asked to push their hands holding the items into a container of sand, which was later filled with plaster.

A pair of train tickets commemorate the arrival of the railway in 1830, making Huyton station one of the oldest in the world.

This cast was created by Stephanie, who said that it was a "really fun process".

"All the fine details come out; it's really captured the tickets," she said.

"I can't believe that it's there forever now, and a part of the place where we live. It feels so weird that that's my real finger in the cast."

The trail also includes a trophy shield reflecting the victory of the Huyton Boys football team at the English Schools Under 15 FA Cup in 1971, a spray can to bring out the community's artistic identity, and two dogs about to butt heads, a nod to the local pub.

On Derby Road there is a cast of a gavel made from the wood of an old oak tree that was blown down in a storm in Bowring Park in 2007, to mark the park's centenary.

Another cast shows a flower and a butterfly, thought up by Carla Simkin.

She had worked for the council and ran the annual Knowsley Flower Show.

"It's absolutely brilliant," she said, looking at the finished product. "It's just fantastic to have a public art trail. You've got the links to football, writing, Huntley and Palmers, it's just amazing."

Each cast is encircled by a code which can be solved by scanning a QR code and following the clues to uncover the hidden message.

Heron said: "I liked the idea of a community and sense of belonging, then the hands link everything and keep it within a circle."

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