THE shortlist of finalists for the Bradford Beck listening sculpture design competition has been announced.

Friends of Bradford’s Becks (FOBB) is marking the course of the hidden waterway which flows through the city using 15 pavement plaques carved out of stone.

An additional special sculpture in Tyrrel Street will see passers-by able to put their ear to the sculpture and hear the river running below their feet.

Four finalists have been announced by the FOBB and will now be interviewed by the competition’s judges on Wednesday, September 7, before the winner is revealed on World Rivers Day on Sunday, September 25. An exhibition of the beck sculpture competition entries will be held at the Pavilion Cafe in Centenary Square on the same day.

The trail will also be officially opened next month and each of the beck project’s 15 plaques carries a line of a poem specially written by Jane Callaghan in a competition held in 2014.

The finalists, battling it out for the £2,000 prize donated by FOBB member Judith Yaxley, are Kate Maddison, of Gargrave, who has submitted a design featuring a column of spinning threads in stainless steel to represent threads of textile or jets of water.

Simon Warner, of Keighley, looks to transform a telephone box into a listening post for the hidden river in his design.

Instead of a payphone inside the box, there are earpieces at different heights linked to the beck below.

Alex Blakey, of Slaithwaite, has designed a two-metre high curving stone column inset with glass panels.

The coloured glass panels would show the underground river, wildlife and children playing. The flaps on the design’s earpieces are engraved ‘Listen to the river, lost but now found’.

Pat Walls, of Huddersfield, has submitted a design featuring a 2.5-metre tall sandstone block, with a girl listening for the source of the beck.

He is carving the poetry plaques for the Beck trail through Bradford city centre.

All of the competition’s entrants had to live in Yorkshire, or have exhibited a sculpture in Bradford.

Barney Lerner, chairman of FOBB, has appealed for the public to give their views on the four finalists’ designs.

He said: “All of the final four designs are very different.

“Any one of the four would work in Bradford.

“The competition was challenging for artists, with a technical brief for the sounds as well as an artistic requirement.

“The sculpture has to have some essence of both Bradford and the Beck as well as be interesting.

“It also has to be long lasting, accessible to all ages and abilities and vandal proof, and no power supply is allowed.

“We are very keen to know what people in Bradford think of them. We have to consider criteria such as if people would notice them in the street and would they be of interest.

“There were nine entries for the competition to design a sculpture to sit over the hidden river in the city centre and let people hear the underground stream through speaking tubes.”

After announcing the winner next month, FOBB will then apply to Bradford Council for planning permission for the listening sculpture. The group will also be applying for a need to raise £30,000 to make and install it. The group will be applying for an Arts Council grant.

The winning artists and FOBB will also tour schools and community groups to talk about the project and raise awareness of the beck.

People can view and comment about the final four entrants before the final judging takes place at markingbradfordbeck.org/sculpture-competition/the-shortlist.