THE HERITAGE SCULPTURE

Situated at the entrance to the Heritage Area, the sculpture was designed and carved by Anthony Lysycia, M.A. ( RCA) in 2005, and was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Over a 150 people were present at the official unveiling on October 23rd 2005. The large stones came from a nearby, working quarry and some of the artefacts incorporated in the sculpture are from the Heritage Area and the old quarry. The carving depicts the history and industrial past of the village and some of the wildlife to be found in the area.

THE ROMAN SOLDIER. Llanymynech has a long, history of mining for various minerals and the quarrying of limestone from Llanymynech Hill. On the north - west side of the Hill are the remains of ancient surface mines, where the Romans excavated for lead, copper and possibly silver. According to William Cathrall, who compiled a book, The History of Oswestry, in 1855, ‘there is no doubt that the Roman miners smelted their copper there in jars in open hearths’. Beneath the carving of a Roman soldier’s head is the name : MEDIOLANUM. In Catherall’s book the late Rev. Peter Roberts stated that the reputed Roman encampment in the area was: ‘the identical spot where Mediolanum once quartered the legions of ambitious Rome.’

THE TREE. In the 18^th century George Rodney, an admiral in the Royal Navy, increased the prosperity of the area by using the wood of the extensive oak forests to build and repair his ships. A grateful population raised a stone monument in his honour on the summit of the Breidden Hill a few miles from Llanymynech.

THE BORDER. The division down the centre of the tree and across the village name denotes the border between Wales and England.

THE CHURCH. To the left of the tree St. Agatha’s church in Llanymynech is depicted, and left again the chimney of the Hoffman Ring Kiln.

THE BARGE. A canal barge illustrates the importance of the canal in moving limestone and burnt lime to customers throughout the area, and bringing in coal and supplies. Farmers would spread lime on their fields, as much of the soil on the Severn-Vyrnwy flood plain was very acidic. The lime was also used to make lime mortar and as a flux in the manufacture of iron.

THE KILN. Below the barge, to the left, and carved into a pattern of bricks, is the complete Hoffman Ring Kiln, used for the continuous burning of limestone.

THE SHELLS. The shells represent some of the creatures whose remains combined with silt and mud in the warm, inland sea which once covered this region over 340 million years ago, to eventually form the rock we know as limestone.

THE OWL. The small carving of an owl, wearing a mortar-board, was done by the children of nearby Carreghofa school, this being the school’s emblem.

THE METALWORK. The large pieces of metal set in the sculpture are unearthed relics, which were once part of the braking mechanism on a large, wooden drum called a Gin Wheel, which was used to regulate the speed of the limestone carrying trucks on their descent to the kilns. The full trucks pulled the empty ones up the incline by means of an endless cable wound round the drum. A fully restored Gin Wheel can be seen in Gyn Lane, a few hundred metres south of the Cross Guns public house in the nearby village of Pant.