‘Kes’ statue set to soar as model is unveiled in memory of author
A FUNDRAISING campaign to build a statue in memory of Kes author Barry Hines has taken flight in his home town of Barnsley as a model of what it will look like was unveiled.
Mr Hines was a teacher as well as the author of A Kestrel for a
Knave – the book on which the acclaimed film Kes was based.
The idea of a permanent memorial to Mr Hines, who died in 2016 following a battle with dementia, came from Ronnie Steele, one of his former pupils when he worked at Longcar School in the 1960s.
Mr Steele went on to become a teacher himself and says Mr Hines was a great influence on him.
But he said that apart from a brief conversation in 1993, he never got the opportunity to properly thank Mr Hines for the way he had changed his life.
“I always wanted to visit him and talk to him. But I never had the courage to knock on his door,” he says.
“When he died I was heartbroken.”
Following Hines’s death in 2016 following a battle with dementia, Mr Steele wrote a poem in tribute to him that he was asked to read at the funeral. It contained a mention of the possibility of the idea of building a statue to Mr Hines in the town – an idea that is now close to fruition after months of hard work. A model of what the finished statue will look like was unveiled yesterday by internationally celebrated sculptor Graham Ibbeson, who has previously created statues of the likes of Fred Trueman, Eric Morecambe and Cary Grant. Mr Ibbeson, a Barnsley local originally from the village of Shafton, is making this his last public sculpture before retiring from such work to concentrate on fine art.
The likeness of Dai Bradley, who played Billy Casper, is captured down to the 1960s elasticated ‘snake’ belt and old fashioned plimsolls he wore in the film. It is hoped the necessary funds can be raised to cast the model in bronze and display it in Barnsley town centre as a permanent memorial by summer 2019 – the year when Mr Hines would have turned 90 and the 50th anniversary of the film being released.
Mr Ibbeson is also creating a limited number of maquettes, which will be sold for between £150 to £5,000 to go towards the funding of the main piece.