Statue re-installed in town after £40k restoration

The bronze statue depicts a woman comforting her son and holding a shopping bag containing items linked to the former mining town

A statue has been re-installed in a Leicestershire town following a £40,000 restoration project.

North West Leicestershire Council removed the Mother and Child work of art from its position outside Coalville Library in September so it could be cleaned and renovated.

It was replaced, on Monday, close to its original 1963 home at the entrance to the town's Belvoir Centre.

The council said an official unveiling would be held "in a few weeks" with details to be confirmed later.

Planning permission to install the statue at the Belvoir Road entrance to the shopping centre was approved on 28 June.

The 1963 Mother and Child statue has been restored to the original bronze colouring

The bronze piece was originally created by John Roydon Thomas and unveiled for the opening of a shopping centre.

It shows a mother proudly looking forward with her child looking behind her and holding a string shopping bag, which contains lumps of coal, a bobbin, a baby doll and the fourth item was thought to have been a battery.

The statue was later removed and had to be rescued from a skip by the district council, before it was installed in front of the town's library in High Street in 1988.

Tom Stanyard, the council's senior economic development officer, previously had to reassure residents that it was "absolutely the same statue", after rumours circulated that it had been replaced by a new sculpture.

He added the statue's new location would have "a lot more footfall" where "more people can appreciate her".

The sculpture was restored and moved thanks to a grant from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

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