The Buckley Community Rail Sculpture by Teena Gould and Information Board"

Buckley Town Railway Station, Buckley

1 December 2004

The sculpture was made from wet bricks from Lane End Brickworks and based on the Little Mountain area of Buckley. The work was made in 2002 at a workshop in Castle Cement with community groups. The work is in the shape of a mountain and on its surface are many representations of Buckley's history and culture - eg. brickworks, wildlife, street map, etc. The information board is due to contain train timetables. The project had been carried out in partnership with Borderlands Community Rail and supported by the environmental charity Groundwork Wrexham and Flintshire. Funding bodies were: Countryside Council for Wales, Welsh Development Agency, Flintshire Local Voluntary Council, Hanson Environment Fund, Prince's Trust and Castle Cement.

The information board at the centre of the sculpture contains the following poster:

Buckley Community Rail Information Board

This board was commissioned by Groundwork Wrexham & Flintshire and designed by Teena Gould as part of a project to provide appropriate Information Boards at rural rail stations throughout North Wales and the Borders. Each board is intended to reflect the nature of the community where it is located.

The economic and social history of Buckley is based upon the clay industry in which Buckley was a premier producer of bricks, pipe-work and other ancillary clay based products for the construction industry. Buckley was ideally situated for this industry having active collieries alongside the clay reserves which were in the form of mountains. This sculpture represents one of the clay mountains on which industry was based. Closer examination of the sculpture will reveal points of interest in the town and its history along with an engraved map of the town.

It is appropriate that Buckley is the first station on the Borderlands Line to be provided with one of these information boards as the line was developed from a short line which ran from Buckley to Connah's Quay on the Dee estuary to carry coal and bricks to the waiting ships for onward shipment to Dublin.

As part of the project the local community was invited to take part in the project with ideas for the design and to take part in the sculpture's preparation and production. Several local schools were involved and bricks prepared by the schools and bearing the names of the schools can be seen around the base of the sculpture.

Author: Groundwork UK

The Buckley Community Rail Sculpture by Teena Gould and Information Board"

Buckley Town Railway Station, Buckley

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