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British Ironworks Centre & Shropshire Sculpture Park facts for kids
Metal gorilla constructed from 40,000 spoons at the sculpture park of the British Ironworks Centre
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| Location | Aston, Oswestry, Shropshire, England |
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| Type | Indoor/outdoor sculpture park Forge Visitors centre |
The British Ironworks Centre & Shropshire Sculpture Park is a forge, silversmiths and sculpture park with a large showroom near Oswestry in Shropshire, England. The centre is famous for its safari park of sculptures, mostly in metal, and its gorilla made entirely of spoons. The centre is located on the A5 road 3.1 miles (5 km) south east of Oswestry town.
On site, the centre has a shop, café, forge, silversmiths, clock repairer, sculpture park and falconry.
History
In 2013, the centre was asked to create four iron pavilions to celebrate the anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation. The order came from Buckingham Palace, and the pavilions would be used as entrances to the celebrations being held in its gardens.
The centre have also handcrafted steel forget-me-nots for a charity fundraiser for a local hospice. One thousand of the steel flowers were unveiled in April 2016, and a hasty re-order was required when they first batch of 1,000 sold out within hours.
Spoons Gorilla
In 2013, illusionist Uri Geller commissioned the centre to create a 12 ft (3.7 m) high gorilla from spoons sent in from around the world. Initially 6,000 spoons were donated from across the globe including one that used to belong to Winston Churchill. When the project was complete the final tally was 40,000 spoons from as far afield as China, India, Kenya, Armenia and Tahiti . Whilst Geller commissioned the piece, it was funded by the Ironworks Centre.
The gorilla sculpture was created by sculptor Alfie Bradley over 5 months and was unveiled by Prince Michael of Kent in 2014. The sculpture was taken to Uri Geller's house in the same year, but is now on display back at the centre.