Maghull’s long awaited and eagerly anticipated rhinoceros recycling sculpture has been installed and unveiled (6.6.21) on Stafford Moreton Way, as part of a Friends of Maghull and District (FOMD) crowd funded environmental wildflower project supported by Maghull Town Council. The life-sized galvanised mesh steel sculpture was lovingly and meticulously created by Chris Butler (MD) of the Liverpool based internationally renowned Castle Fine Arts Foundry for material cost price only due to a bond of friendship following a previous installation (Compassion in Conflict).
It has been designed to insert plastic bottle tops to highlight endangered wildlife (rhinoceros) and the importance of plastic recycling, whilst representing a beautiful iconic aesthetic, in one of the highest areas of footfall in Maghull. Over the last two years it has captured the imagination of the whole community particularly the three primary schools that have been enthusiastically collecting plastic bottle tops for some time.
The official unveiling was undertaken by Cllr John Sayers (MTC Deputy Council Leader) in his additional role as the new Mayor of Maghull on his first official engagement, who congratulated everyone involved in the project and gave special thanks to Chris and his wife Cintia for their generosity and presented them with a bouquet of flowers. He added that, “our community is immensely grateful, as Chris and his family, sadly had to overcome unimaginable personal professional challenges, yet still undertook this second wonderful philanthropic work of public art for our community”.
Further presentations were provided by Dr Frank Sharp (FOMD) who thanked MTC (particularly Cllr’s Patrick McKinley & John Sayers) for their support, Spacecare for the free harmonious hard landscaping, Ashworth Hospital Gardeners for the free soft landscaping and the whole community for their amazing support. He described the background to the project by saying, “in 2018 the whole area was described as ‘an absolute eyesore’ (Champion Newspaper p1 29.8.18), so we formed a charity group, crowd funded £6500 and with the support of the community planted 12 trees, 1500 bulbs, 28m of mixed wildlife friendly hedging, 102 m² of wildflower turf, including the provision of the eco-sculpture and a future eco-information board. We hope to inspire other projects, encourage residents to engage in local natural underused resources including Jubilee and Roughly Woods and Lunt Meadows. All of which are highlighted in our introductory video.
Other presentations were provided by Frank Kennedy (Friends of the Earth) focusing on the wider environmental message and Chris Butler who gave a fantastic insight into the creation of the sculpture. He stated, “We are all interconnected with nature and have a responsibility in maintaining natures homeostasis whilst any neglect is at our shared peril. The sculpture should hopefully act as a reminder that we have nearly caused the extinction of countless species symbolised by the rhinoceros, whilst the plastic bottle tops is a symbol of humanities neglect of the environment and the importance of recycling in response”.
The unveiling was undertaken by the Mayor & Chris and was crowned by the primary schoolchildren from Lydiate, Northway and St Andrews Primary Schools who scooped up their bottle top collections from a huge recycled jungle themed cardboard box store (created by Bumbles Nursery) into the rhinoceros, and were rewarded with ‘goody bags’ from the local Morrisons store. To thank everyone – individual flower shaped thank you placards were on display and a thank you video will be posted in the near future.
A rhino naming competition will be announced soon. FOMD also hope to install the final component in the form of a dynamic ecology noticeboard.
Despite being one of the planets many endangered species, our 12 bin bags of bottle tops collected by the community has only filled it halfway, which hopefully makes him/her a half full kind of animal!