Stephenson's lamp sculpture to be unveiled

The lamp sculpture

A sculpture of George Stephenson’s miner’s lamp will be unveiled later this month.

Standing 3.6m high, it will be located at the South Gate/West Moor junction, close to Dial Cottage which was Stephenson's North Tyneside home.

The artwork, based on the engineer and inventor's light which was designed in 1815, will be revealed on 20 March.

The mayor of North Tyneside called the sculpture “impressive and thought-provoking”.

“When I started researching Stephenson, the thing that shouted out to me was his miner’s lamp,” sculptor Andy Mayers said.

It was invented at around the same time Sir Humphry Davy's eponymous lamp.

“Davy’s became the more widely-used,” Mr Mayers said. “The scientific community sided with Davy, an eminent scientist, over Stephenson, who was from a much humbler background.”

Stephenson’s lamp was only really used in coalfields around Newcastle and so became called the ‘Geordie lamp’.

Mayor of North Tyneside Dame Norma Redfearn said the "impressive and thought-provoking artwork that will bring something special to this part of West Moor".