One Thursday morning in June, I  found myself on a building site in the middle of Barnsley in the pouring rain.  It was the beginning of work on a public art commission with designer  Dave Appleyard.  Our task was to take two formidably ugly electricity sub stations on the Mandela Gardens site, and change them into something of which the local community will be proud,  bearing in mind that this is a very public space in the heart of the town  The site visit, in monsoon conditions, was made more comic by me having to wear size 9 protective boots on my size 11 feet.  I tottered around like a little old Chinese lady with bound feet.  

We visited two local primary schools over the following weeks to develop ideas for the designs, and also get words from the young people themselves, which would cover the final structures.  The children from Pipers Grove and Doncaster Road Primary Schools really came up trumps with some fabulous designs and evocative words, full of pride in their home town, describing why Barnsley is such a special place.  The final poem The Ballad of Barnsley was constructed by me in the last week or so, using the pupils’ words as building blocks.  I’ll keep you posted as to when the structures are in place, and let you share the poem when it finally goes public, over the next months.