Reg Harris - or to give him his full title - Reginald Hargreaves Harris OBE (1 March 1920 – 22 June 1992) was a legendary British track-racing cyclist in the 1940s and 1950s. He won the world amateur sprint title in 1947, two Olympic silver medals in 1948 and the professional World Title in 1949, 1950, 1951 and 1954. His ferocious will to win made him a household name in the 1950s, but he also surprised many with a comeback more than 20 years later, winning the National Track Sprint Championship in 1974 at the age of 54!! I was commissioned to create a sculpture of a cyclist bursting out of the back of a friends garage (the exploding brickwork/cladding has still to be created!) and decided it would be my tribute to "Reg". Quite a few bicycle sprockets & lengths of chain, mostly courtesy of @crankworks.op (ta!), quite a bit of welding and some top powdercoating courtesy of Batchglow Ltd. Dinnington, S.Yorks.
The Pleasley Pit Sign
July 2023 was the 150th Anniversary of the Pleasley Pit shaft being sunk. Pleasley is a small village on the border of Derbyshire & Nottinghamshire with a wonderfully restored and maintained colliery pit-head now a heritage museum complete with working Victorian winding engines. I was well chuffed when commissioned to create a piece to celebrate this anniversary and decided upon a statement sign, which I fabricated completely from steel, nuts, bolts & old tools from the pit stores. The frame is welded up from original tunnel support RSJ's. It's a bit of a beast that I hope will stand for another 150 years!
The Hollingwood Hub Sculpture
Is situated right next to the lock on the Chesterfield Canal, opposite the site of the former "Sand Spun Pipe Foundry". It celebrates the industrial heritage of the area, The Trans Pennine Trail and the restoration of the canal. Sponsored by Chris Allen and installed by the Volunteers of The Chesterfield Canal Trust.
Powdered Coated Galvanised Steel.
"Time Chaser"
Copper, Brass, Silver Plate & Pitch Pine
Private Commission
" Just Going Rusty"
Recycled steel parts
Private Commission
The Welbeck & Holbeck Memorial
Commissioned by the local parish council to collate the names of The Welbeck Estate workers who were killed during the First World War but were only previously named on four separate and private memorials.
Steel Garden Gate commissioned from a lovely cycling family and made from worn bicycle gears & combination spanners
"Boudica"
GWR Sack Barrow, Percussion Cymbals, Harrow Discs, Marimba Resonators, Euphonium, Steel Pliers,
Bicycle Cassettes, Car Jack, Turkish Napkin Rings, African Spear, Indian Spun Goblet, Copper Swarf, Lighting Chain, Brass Ashtray, Perforated Steel, Cart Shafts, The Fan out of an electric fake Coal Fire & an awful lot of rivets!
Private Commission
"The T.O.B"
1800 Cycle Gears welded together to celebrate the finishing sprint stage of the 2018 Tour of Britain at
Devon & Sconce Park,
Newark.
Commissioned by Newark & Sherwood District Council
Solar powered Brass Nonet making beautiful Water Music!
The Treetops Hospice Memory Tree
Wheelchair Special Seating
Charlotte Moore #4
TeamGB Women’s Basketball
Charlotte’s father approached me 9 months before the Tokyo Paralympics with a challenge to design & produce a bespoke seat that would attach to the Matsunaga Sports Chair that Charlotte already competed in.
Charlotte suffers from scoliosis as well as being paralysed from the waist down and this made the standard seat unsuitable for her at competition level as it did not provide the necessary support during the game.
I had previously been involved in special seating projects for quadriplegics whilst making artificial limbs in the 1980s and realised that a similar solution was required.
The challenge though was to maximise support whilst keeping the weight down and enabling a simple but strong attachment to the existing aluminium frame of the sports wheelchair.
Without giving away too many trade secrets, we went from life-casting to thermoplastics and grp to produce a supportive, comfortable & strong set-up that ticked all of Charlotte’s boxes…except one - weight!
The final prototype, even with many tweaks still weighed over a kilo and I was determined to reduce this.
It was then that I approached Ryan at Clan Composites Ltd. via a mutual friend whom I had worked with in MotoGP.
Ryan immediately grasped the problem and after seeing my moulds agreed to create a Carbon Fibre support to replace my rather industrial polyester GRP version. He squeezed this job into a hectic schedule and the resulting CF piece landed at my studio 5 days before Charlotte had to fly out and only 2 days before her final practise session! Ryan’s work was flawless and not only clearly stronger than my GRP piece, it weighed significantly less enabling the total special seat unit to weigh in at approx. 800 grammes. Less weight means more speed for Charlotte!
Although the team didn’t medal, Charlotte’s performance didn’t go unnoticed and she has been signed up for a year’s contract with a professional wheelchair basketball team in the Spanish League!
