St Neots is to receive a permanent public sculpture after the town council voted at its full council meeting on 23 June 2026 to approve the Heartbeat of St Neots commission. The chosen design, Stop, Rest and Trade, is a full-scale horse created by local artist Paul Pibworth and will be made from stainless steel with copper horseshoes and bridlework.

The sculpture will be sited at Oast House, near the Priory Centre, a location with strong historic connections to the town’s brewing heritage and offering a prominent position within the footprint of these important community buildings.

Rooted in the community

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. Neotists CIC, a St Neots community arts organisation, won the commission and appointed Paul Pibworth as artist.

The team ran two public workshops and a targeted online survey that reached nearly 10,000 people and generated 145 responses. Community voices were clear: St Neots wanted a sculpture grounded in the history and identity of the town.

Three concepts were developed in response to that engagement.

• Stop, Rest and Trade draws on St Neots’ role as a key staging point and brewing town near the Great North Road, where coaching inns served travellers and trade for centuries. Some of the old coaching arches and brewery buildings remain visible in the town today. The sculpture will be presented at full scale, its surface carrying text about the market economy that shaped the foundations of the town.
• The Statty Ribbon took its inspiration from the statute fair, known locally as the statty, where young people once fixed ribbons to their clothes bearing the name of the work they sought. The four-metre ribbon sculpture would have mapped trades and occupations across time on one continuous line.
• Listening Post was a parabolic acoustic mirror designed to gather sound to a focal point, inviting people to pause, listen, and reflect on the green spaces and public places that define St Neots.

The council’s working group selected Stop, Rest and Trade as the preferred concept, and the full council confirmed that decision at its meeting on 23 June.

The artist

Paul Pibworth is a local artist and designer with a background spanning 17 years in engineering and over 25 years in the creative industry. He holds specialised apprenticeships in sheet metalworking and advanced MIG and TIG welding, alongside a degree in spatial arts from London Metropolitan University.

Paul has an established track record in public sculpture. His previous commissions include Stanley’s Shoes, a full-scale stainless steel shire horse commissioned by Central Bedfordshire Council and exhibited at Cotswolds Sculpture Park, Raveningham Sculpture Trail, and Beaulieu Sculpture Park. He is also working on a series of commissions for Via Beata, an ambitious 400-mile pilgrimage path from Lowestoft to St David’s Head, including a gateway sculpture at the most easterly point in England.

What happens next

With council approval in place, Paul Pibworth can now begin manufacturing. Detailed design work will support a planning application, and further engagement will take place with councillors to agree on the final text incorporated into the sculpture’s surface. The text will draw on the coaching inn’s history, markets, trade routes, brewing and community life of St Neots.

Studio visits, commissioned photography, and a cardboard maquette display are planned for the coming months, with the sculpture targeted to be in place before the end of 2026.

“This project has always been about the people of St Neots. The engagement, the workshops, the survey responses — all of it shaped what Paul has created. We are proud to be delivering something that will stand in this town for generations.”

Richard Slade, CEO, Neotists CIC