Plans to move city's steelworker statue submitted

A statue created 52 years ago to commemorate steelworkers in Stoke-on-Trent is set to be moved after plans were submitted.

Steel Man could be relocated from outside the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Hanley to the Goodwin Steel Castings foundry, on the corner of Leek Road and Ivy House Road, where it was originally cast.

The monument, a life-sized figure dressed in protective clothing and wielding an oxygen lance, was created in 1974 by artist Colin Melbourne in honour of staff at Shelton Bar steelworks.

A statement with the planning application lodged with Stoke-on-Trent City Council said the statue embodied "craftmanship and heritage".

"The figure stands as a testament to the skill, pride and industrial expertise that have long defined Stoke-on-Trent," it continued.

"It reflects not only the resilience and dignity of the steelworkers it commemorates, but also the capability of local manufacturing to create work of lasting cultural and historical significance."

The statue would be loaned to Goodwin PLC from Stoke-on-Trent City Council as part of the relocation and it would be on public display, visible from the road.

The authority previously agreed to create a new statue celebrating women who worked in the city's ceramics industry, to be displayed at Steel Man's current location.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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