The Core of Castleford

Looking as though it has been drawn up through a circle drilled from the paving, a cylinder like a huge core sample, reaches up to the sky, making visible the layers of history and geology beneath our feet. The decorations of each stratified band are designed to conjure up a wealth of associations with the character of Castleford. For instance clay is shown by squashed discs, sausages and hollowed bowls, the early ancestors to the later pottery industry. Coal is depicted by the dark Granite base, fire, and the patterns of fossiised fern trees. Water, the motorway of the regions industrial growth is shown through ripples and droplets. Castleford’s Roman heritage is represented by classical Roman ornaments including the bead and reel and the laurel leaf.The column is topped with a good head of bubbles, like those that used to be churned up by the weir and blown round the streets.