Public Art

In partnership with Salford City Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) a programme of community and public art schemes was developed as part of the major project to develop and conserve Ordsall Hall.

‘Moat’ by John Kennedy of Landlab

Completed in May 2011. This imaginative commission highlights the location of the Hall’s original moat. The concept for the moat extends the idea of pretending that the moat is real and full of water. He also has another exhibit here called ‘Causeway Edge’.

‘Timeline’ by Lesley Fallais

The second public art commission  at Ordsall Hall was ‘Timeline’ developed by Lesley Fallais. The Hall is a Grade 1 Listed building dating from the 14th century, with significant architectural and archaeological significance. As such Lesley has created a ‘living timeline’ which reflects the social change at the Hall over the past 800 years.

In the summer of 2015 two artists took over Ordsall Hall for the temporary exhibition ‘Messengers and Promises’. The exhibition was based around the human relationship with animals and included drawings and paintings by Kate Herbert and sculptures by Angela Sidwell. One of the artworks ‘The Day’s End, Steel and Wire’ remains in the gardens.

The Day’s End, Steel and Wire by Angela Sidwell

Angela Sidwell is a sculptor from Cheshire working predominantly in wood, wire and textiles.

She has been working and exhibiting as an artist for the last fifteen years including creating large scale public art features, working in schools as a 3D specialist and exhibiting in galleries and outdoor sculpture events. Animals and the issues that surround them have always been pivotal factor in her work.

“It felt right to make a full size working horse that would sit amongst the surroundings at Ordsall Hall, conjuring up images of the past when there would have been a working farm here. There were several paintings of horses that I looked at in Salford’s collection, but it was Preparing for Market  by John Frederick Herring, that I drew most inspiration from. I really liked the horse’s restful posture, before his long day at work, and imagined him later resting at the end of the day. For the actual body shape of the horse I looked to one of my horses – Poppy – who although not particularly tall is built like a tank. I can really imagine her in a time when horses were vital to man’s work, whether on a farm pulling carts, or “down pit” using her stamina and strength to earn her keep.”