A Walk Around Town

A Walk Around Town
Share the stories of your town

A Walk Around Town is a community arts project by artist Patrick Murphy and poet Ian McMillan, celebrating the stories, humour, history and character of Barnsley’s towns.

The project invites local people to share the places, memories, characters and stories that make their town special. These contributions are transformed into illustrated town cards, poetry and creative guides, encouraging residents and visitors to explore familiar places in new ways.

The first phase of A Walk Around Town visited six towns:

• Wombwell
• Penistone
• Goldthorpe
• Cudworth
• Royston
• Hoyland

Through workshops, conversations and local research, residents shared stories about important landmarks, hidden histories, local characters, favourite places and the details of everyday life that are often overlooked.

These contributions were brought together in creative town packs, helping residents and visitors discover each town through the eyes of the people who live there. The video below looks at the Hoyland project.

New workshops across Barnsley

The next phase of A Walk Around Town is visiting seven more towns and communities:

• Barnsley Town Centre
• Darfield
• Kendray
• Athersley & New Lodge
• Bolton upon Dearne
• Dodworth
• Monk Bretton

Each workshop offers local people the opportunity to share their stories and help identify the places they would like to see included on the town cards.

These might include historic buildings, landmarks, green spaces, shops, gathering places, hidden corners or locations connected to personal memories and local stories.

The ideas gathered during the workshops will help create a creative tour of each town, shaped by the people who know it best.

Workshop dates and venues

Athersley & New Lodge

Monday 16 November 2026

• 10:30 am — Family Hub, Athersley North Primary School
• 1:30 pm — Ad Astra, New Lodge Community Centre

Dodworth

Friday 13 November 2026, 10:30 am–12:30 pm

Dodworth Library

Barnsley Town Centre

Friday 13 November 2026, 1:30–3:30 pm

Library @ the Lightbox

Darfield

Tuesday 24 November 2026, morning

Darfield Library

The exact start time will be confirmed.

Bolton upon Dearne

Tuesday 24 November 2026, from 1:30 pm

Renaissance Centre

Kendray

The date and venue will be announced shortly.

Monk Bretton

The date and venue will be announced shortly.

It soon became apparent that I wanted to explore creating both an elegant lifelike horse sculpture and also how these forms could be abstracted and communicate strength and poise but in a more angular form.

I became very interested in how horses have been represented in art over the centuries and the simplicity of Dala horses from Sweden. The Dala horse gets its name from the Dalarna region in central Sweden where it was made by artisans in the small villages primarily as children’s toy. It has gone on to be a visual shorthand for Sweden, being bought as a souvenir. I started to refer to mine as a Dearne Valley horse, to try and imbue it with the place it was created.

The images below show both these approaches in development in my studio.

I enjoyed abstracting the characteristics of a horse into geometric shapes, I was also pleased with how the poise and stance of my modernist horses visually linked with ancient Etruscan or Greek horse sculptures. I am planning to produce a series of bronze and ceramic editions of these in 2022.

Developing a realistic horse

It took a very long time and many attempts to get the initial maquettes to a stage where the form of the horse looked balanced and its proportions were right. Many refinements had to be made especially to the rear legs which are amazing cantilevered constructions that are able to take the huge weight of the horse’s body on what are very delicate and slender legs.

Because we were mostly in lockdown during the project it afforded me time to learn new processes and skills. During the lockdown I researched how to create digital 3d forms and also how to print these on a 3d printer. Mixing these tools with the development of traditional clay maquettes really speeded up the process.

Once I had achieved the shape of the horse, thoughts then turned to how to make an edition of them and replicate them to make a small herd. The most manageable way was for me to make them myself from clay in my studio. Once fired they would become a ceramic edition. I made plaster moulds from my original sculpture and experimented with casting them.

The various lockdowns didn’t help with this and progress slowed but I eventually got to the point where I had made a small batch of horses and they were ready to be fired. Images below show the process of firing them in a kiln.

I’m pleased to say I have now successfully fired the first test pieces and they came out really well. I wanted to explore different glazes both matt and gloss to see how they would affect the character of the horse. I think the exciting part of this project is experimenting further with colours and textures of glazes and creating a whole herd of horses that although the same form are totally different in their finishes.

Own a Dearne Valley Horse

I am now working on a ceramic edition of my Dearne Valley Horses that are available to buy. I am going to produce them in four colours initially Dark Brown, Brown, Light Blue and Dark Blue.

I plan to release a batch of 10-15 ceramic horses every month starting in January 2022. Each is handmade in my studio and takes approximately one month from start to finish to make, then allow to dry, fire to bisque (which means firing in a kiln once to remove all water from the clay) then to glaze in the appropriate colour, fire a second time at a higher temperature to bond the clay and glaze together. Then photograph and upload for sale. 

Pre Order

You can pre-order one of my Dearne Valley Horses from the January release from my online shop. They will be ready to post/collect at the end of January.

I will continue to develop and make the Dearne Valley horses and also start to produce the more angular version of the horse into a ceramic or even a bronze cast edition. 

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