CREATIVE pupils at the Maelor School, Penley, have visited Ellesmere port Boat Museum to find inspiration for a sculpture.

Pupils from the Maelor School and Queens Park High, Chester, have been working alongside Welsh artist Nigel Talbot to create the sculpture for Redrow's Wharton Lock development at the Shropshire Union Canal in Chester.

Once complete, the artwork will take pride of place in a newly landscaped area by the canal towpath.

The sculpture is part of the Redrow Schools Partnership which brings two schools together to work on arts- based projects at the National Trust property, Erddig.

Darren Lever, design manager for Redrow Homes (North West), said: 'We wanted an imaginative, eye-catching yet durable piece of public art as a focal point for our development.'

Artist Nigel Talbot, who has worked with the pupils on a variety of activities at Erddig, said: 'I really wanted to encompass some of the history and traditions of the canal in the design of the Wharton Lock art work.'

Nigel came up with a design based on barge tillers, with six square oak timbers, each standing three metres above the ground with arms averaging two metres in length.

At eye-level on 12 sides of the six uprights will be a bronze panel cast from the works of the pupils from the two schools.

'It was for this element that I took the youngsters to the Ellesmere Port Boat Museum, so they could research some of the history of Britain's canals for themselves and, in particular, the history of the Shropshire Union Canal,' added Nigel.

The pupils will now work with Nigel on their designs for the bronze panels in a series of workshops at their schools and Erddig and it is hoped that the finished sculpture will be installed in June.