The Heartbeat of St Neots sculpture is taking shape. We visited artist Paul Pibworth at his workshop to film the making process and talk about the ideas behind the piece.

From community ideas to a horse

The project began in 2023 when St Neots Town Council ran an open public tender for a community art commission, funded by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority through Huntingdonshire District Council.

When Neotists won that tender, we began with the people of St Neots and organised public workshops and an online survey, which received 145 responses. We asked residents what makes the town special and what kind of art they would like to see. Sculpture came out as the most popular choice, and the town centre as the place people most wanted to see it.

From those conversations, the design team developed the concept for a full-scale stainless steel horse. The chosen piece, Stop, Rest and Trade, celebrates the role horses played in the growth of the town as a staging point near the Great North Road, serving travellers and trade through its coaching inns and markets.

Paul explained why the horse felt right for St Neots: “You only have to scratch the surface. They’ve always been here for us, whether as a beast of burden or a source of enjoyment and pleasure.”

He points to the town’s position where commercial routes meet: the Great North Road, travelled by horses for centuries; the river, where barges were horse-drawn into the early 20th century; and the market, with its livestock trade and the coaching inns where post horses were rested and changed. Some of those old coaching arches can still be seen in the town today.

Made by hand in stainless steel

Paul trained as a sheet metal worker before studying spatial arts at London Metropolitan University, and brings both skills to the work. He chose stainless steel because it is “one of those forever and a day materials” that will not rust and will last in all weathers.

At the moment the horse is at the skeletal stage. Paul starts with drawings of the stance at various scales, then a full-size outline on the workshop wall, which each piece of steel is offered up against as he works. The shapes themselves are coaxed out by hand using tools and techniques from car panel making, which allow him to create the compound curves needed for an animal’s form.

On the day of our visit he was working on the nostrils and the feathers around the hooves. He tackles the hardest parts first and is not afraid to go back and remake a piece if it isn’t quite right. Once the frame is complete, he will move on to the hooves and fill in the form from there.

What comes next

The finished surface will carry text telling the story of the markets and trade that shaped St Neots. We will share more updates as the sculpture progresses towards installation.

Watch the full video, produced by Ollie Jones to see Paul at work and hear him talk about the project in his own words.