THE creators of an iconic County Durham structure have collaborated with school pupils to produce a permanent sculpture inspired by the region’s heritage.

Aycliffe Fabrications, which constructed the In Our Image model located at the gateway of Newton Aycliffe’s industrial estate, was called in to help manufacture an art piece designed during a project run by St John’s School and Sixth Form College, in Bishop Auckland.

Following months of discussions the steel sculpture - which gives a nod to the area’s industrial history - was installed in a section of the Woodhouse Lane school’s garden, renovated to mark its 50th anniversary.

Arts coordinator Jaquie Holloway said: “The base (of the sculpture) is sort of cylindrical so it looks like a base of an engine while the spiral represents steam. People are very thrilled because it’s our first sculpture and we’re hoping in due course we might manage more.”

The school set to work on the sculpture after securing funding to run an arts project which was given a railway theme and saw members of 11 departments come forward to get involved.

As part of the Trains Arts Project a group of 15 Year 10 science pupils visited Locomotion, the National Railway Museum, in Shildon, where they took photographs and had a ride on a steam engine.

They then met up with artist Jane Crawford to discuss how they could express creatively what they had learned from the visit before coming up with a design and prototype to be taken to Aycliffe Fabrications.

Christine Bewley, Aycliffe Fabrications managing director, said: “We tried to work within their budget to make the best that we could. The prototype was analysed by our estimating and technical manager to see the exact layout and form and to visualise if it would be possible to make a large sculpture. After many discussions about materials and siting we were able to come up with some ideas.

“We finally all agreed on a one metre high sculpture from mild steel which was manufactured in our workplace.” Having been installed earlier this year, the sculpture sits proudly in the school and has started to weather.

Mrs Holloway added: “It has been a stimulus and motivation for further cross-curricular arts projects. We hope one day we have the money to do another sculpture with Aycliffe Fabrications.”

Other pupils investigated a range of railway-related aspects including pollution, engine and carriage design, refugees and migration, characters who travel by train and advertisements.