Statue planned to celebrate the legacy of James Herriot

The owners of James Herriot World, the museum in Thirsk which commemorates the life and work of the late local author and vet Alfred Wight, have commissioned Norwich-based sculptor Sean Hedges-Quinn to create the statue for the museum’s gardens.

Among the sculptor’s previous works is a statue of actor Arthur Lowe, who played Captain Mainwaring in Dad’s Army.

Tourists from around the world still flock to the Heriot museum, which opened in 1999 in Mr Wight’s original veterinary practice, four years after his death.

The museum is a chance to delve into the life and times of the Sunderland-born man, whose pen name was James Herriot when he turned successfully to fulfilling a long-held ambition to write his own book.

In 1969, Mr Wight wrote If Only They Could Talk, the first of the now-famous series based on his life working as a vet and his training in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.

Sales took off when his first two books were published as a single volume in the United States. The resulting book, All Creatures Great and Small, spawned sequels, movies and a television adaptation.

Despite people’s long held fascination with his work, the museum itself was under threat of closure last year, with Hambleton Council running it at a loss.

It was saved when Ian Ashton, who used to visit Mr Wight at his surgery, set up a private company called the World of James Herriot Ltd to take it over. Mr Wight’s son and daughter, Jim Wight and Rosie Page, are on the board of directors.

Mr Ashton said: “I had an idea shortly after I took over to find the money to have a statue, purely to continue the name of James Herriot for years to come.

“The name has been going through the generations and I thought it would be marvellous to have a statue in the gardens because he was such a fantastic guy, as a writer and a vet.

“Sean’s work is absolutely superb. We’ve sent him a lot of photographs, he’s been here twice and he will be starting to put something together for us to look at in the next few weeks.”

Mr Ashton said he hoped the statue would be unveiled in the summer or autumn of next year.

Work on the statue coincides with the development of a new legacy fund, organised by the museum with the aim of providing bursary support for young people who wish to become vets.

Mr Ashton said: “As a legacy it would be nice for someone who wants to go into the veterinary profession who can’t afford to, to know there was some funding they could tap into and hopefully we can be in a position to offer some.”

Contributions from far and wide

Donations to cover the £60,000 costs of the statue are arriving from all over the world, including one from the United States this week.

But it is closer to home from where organisers have received the biggest boost to date after the Friends of the World of James Herriot presented a donation of £25,000 to the World of James Herriot Ltd. The donation, from a bequest made to the Friends group, was made by the late Mr Thomas Frank Blinks who lived in Robertsbridge, East Sussex, and was a life member of the Friends.

Donations to the James Herriot Statue Fund can be made via worldofjamesherriot. org