Cottingley community gets choice of three artworks for green (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Cottingley community gets choice of three artworks for green

4:50am Wednesday 24th February 2010 in

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They fooled the world in a hoax using just hat pins and paper cut-outs of fairies copied from a book.

But the exploits of Frances Griffiths and her cousin Elsie Wright will be brought to life in a new sculpture in Cottingley celebrating their infamous photographs.

Cottingley Community Association has won nearly £50,000 Lottery funding to turn Cottingley Oval, a village green, into a central meeting place.

It will be transformed with a seating area and flower garden and will have one of three proposed sculptures based on the Cottingley Fairy story as its centrepiece.

Brian Kettlewell, a spokesman for the association, said: “The land is in need of work and we want to create an area that is welcoming and reflects our local history.

“When villagers were consulted over the designs for the site, the overwhelming response was that the artwork should be themed on the Cottingley Fairies incident.”

Designs for the sculpture went on display at Cottingley Cornerstone Centre at a meeting last night so residents can choose which one they want to see standing in Cottingley Oval.

They will remain on display for a week for comments before the final decision.

The first design, by Mick Kirkby-Geddes, shows children dressed as fairies playing among blades of grass. The designer feels it is, “very much in the spirit of Frances and Elsie”.

Chrysalis Arts produced the second design, with the photographs of the fairies reproduced on large metal plates, which the designer says is, “to respect the creativity of Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright in capturing such memorable and provocative images”.

The third design features a fairy, cast from bronze, standing on a stainless steel pair of scissors, balanced on a hat pin plinth.

Campbell Design, who came up with the image, said it “juxtaposed some of the important elements as described within the story”.

The grant has been awarded by Groundwork UK which is managing the Community Spaces programme on behalf of the Big Lottery Fund.

Cottingley Oval is one of 30 projects in Yorkshire to benefit from Community Spaces, which provides grants of £10,000 and more to groups that want to make improvements to local public open spaces.