FOUR additional sculptures are to be added to a heritage trail in Whitby telling the story of the town’s maritime history.

Scarborough Council’s planning committee has approved the new works by local artist Emma Stothard, which will be added to seven wire frame models that already make up the trail.

The heritage trail aims to provide local people and visitors an insight into the town’s fishing industry and its history. Each sculpture represents a character or story associated with Whitby’s fishing heritage. The new sculptures and their locations are:

  • Fisherman "Bridge Ender", Swing Bridge, Bridge Street – the sculpture includes a barrel and crate for public seating;
  • Hornblower, Church Street – it depicts the planting of the Penny Hedge on Ascension Day;
  • Lizzie, Church Street Slipway – the sculpture details a lady carrying a longline with a basket of mussels sited with a bench for public seating;
  • Herring Lassies, Bandstand, Scotch Head – it shows two Herring Lassies gutting fish at a table.

Each of the sculptures would incorporate a small piece of signage, worked into the design with a QR code that can be scanned and display information about about the work and its history.

The previously approved sculptures, also by Emma Stothard, included a fisherwife, a man mending a net, a woman knitting a gansey, photographer and artist Frank Meadow Sutcliffe, a crow’s nest with a lookout, Dora Walker (the only woman to hold a skipper’s licence in the North Sea during the First World War) and a herring lassie.

The committee approved the additional sculptures though not all the councillors were convinced.

Cllr Subash Sharma said it was “abhorrent” to him that only one artist had been involved in the scheme and was the lone vote against the plans.

He said: “This is not my idea of public art. I would like to see something that is more than a passing fancy. I have difficulty calling it art as I do not think it meets the level of what I consider art.”

Cllr Paul Riley added: “I don’t think they are terribly good but people seem to enjoy them.”

In response Whitby councillor Stewart Campbell said he disagreed with Cllr Sharma, while Cllr David Jeffels said the heritage trail was “first class”.