University of Sheffield Heritage Collection Sculpture Map

University of Sheffield Heritage Collection Sculpture Map

This map takes you on a tour to see 11 impressive sculptures that are part of the University Heritage Collection, and are displayed across the University of Sheffield campus.

All information researched and written by Murray Wood, MA History.

Continue

 

University of Sheffield Interactive Sculpture Map Map

Hedge of Friendship

Hedge of Friendship

Hedge of Friendship
(Sculpture 1 of 11)

- Jo Fairfax
- 2008
- Wood and Light Panels
- Each panel HWD/cm: 236 x 128 x 16.5
- ID: 1648
- Ranmoor Student Accommodation, External

Jo Fairfax (active 1995-) is a part of NESTA, which is a charity dedicated to science, technology, and the arts. Fairfax is interested in light installations and interactive works and was touched by the sense of friendship at the University, wanting to reflect that in his piece. When two people stand between the frames, the panels glow, signalling closeness and the beginning of the long-lasting friendships. This piece offers scope for human interaction and a couple's photograph.

The sloping hedges behind the panels represent the hills of Sheffield, and they wrap around one of the oldest oak trees in the area. With that in mind, the sculpture is built into the landscape, making the piece as architectural as it is artistic. Having sculptures in the student villages makes them feel like more than just halls of residence; they become communities with a culture and atmosphere.

Ingots

Ingots

Ingots
(Sculpture 2 of 11)

- Mark Firth
- 2009
- Steel
- HWD/cm: 294 x 277 x 120
- ID: 1433
- Endcliffe Student Accommodation, External

Mark Firth (1952-) turns engineering into an art form, working with various metals and producing geometric abstractions of the industrial world. Firth has a strong connection with Sheffield's past since that his great-great-grandfather of the same name was a renowned steel manufacturer and founder of Firth College, now the University of Sheffield.

At almost three metres tall, the Ingots serve as a striking visual asset of the student village, with the green of Endcliffe student village being complemented by Sheffield's steel foundations. As the sides have oxidised to give the work its rusted appearance, they have developed a brown-orange exterior that plays into the industrial aesthetic. The top surfaces are polished and reflect the sky, offering a new perspective when viewed by those in flats above ground floor. In his initial proposal, Firth commented that the sculpture could be interpreted as a reflection of the tempering and forging of future academics.

On the Primacy of the Square

On the Primacy of the Square

On the Primacy of the Square
(Sculpture 3 of 11)

- Mark Firth
- 2005
- Aluminium
- HWD/cm: 207.5 x 249.7 x 24
- ID: 940
- Firth Court, Main Staircase

Mark Firth (1952-) is interested in the 'beauty of precision' and constructs that reflect Sheffield's steel industry. Given the artist's previously noted connection to the University, it is fitting that this sculpture is located in the building named after his great-great-grandfather. Firth Court was the first building built deliberately for Firth College, the University's predecessor, and was founded on philanthropic gestures and funds raised by Sheffield workers.

On the Primacy of the Square represents the tool used to generate a perfect right angle and is made to appear solid. The tool itself was invented for precision, and the work needed to create this scaled up model required skilled and accurate metalwork, as is the speciality and interest of Mark Firth. Once again, Firth draws upon influences from Sheffield's industrial history.

Mark Firth

Mark Firth

Mark Firth
(Sculpture 4 of 11)

- Albert Bruce-Joy
- 1879
- Marble
- HWD/cm: 90 x 71 x 34.5
- ID: 519
- Firth Court, First Floor Corridor

The subject of this sculpture, Mark Firth (1819-1880), was a local steel manufacturer and philanthropist. In 1875, Firth became mayor of Sheffield, and in 1879 he founded Firth College. This sculpture was presented to Firth by his contemporaries in 1879 for his contributions to the city of Sheffield. The University is widely heralded as a truly civic institution due to the gestures of Firth and his townspeople, with Firth's legacy still being central to the University's ethics and success.
The pedestal on which the sculpture sits is inscribed in gold lettering which reads:

“MARK FIRTH ESQ / FOUNDER / OF THIS COLLEGE / PRESENTED / BY HIS TOWNSMEN / 1879”

Albert Bruce Joy (1842-1924), the artist, was a famed portrait sculptor. Some of his other installations include a statue of William Gladstone in London and William Harvey in Kent.

Bas Reliefs

Bas Reliefs

Bas Reliefs
(Sculpture 5 of 11)

- Studio of Bertel Thorvaldsen
- C. 1831-1834
- Carrara Marble
- Both Panels HWD/cm: 95 x 79.9 x 6.5
- ID: 525
- Firth Court, First Floor Corridor

Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844) was one of the greatest neoclassical sculptors of the nineteenth century. Neoclassicism aimed at capturing the essence of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. In the top panel, Thorvaldsen depicts Pan, a heroic Greek god with the horns and legs of a goat. In the lower panel he portrays a Bacchante, a follower of Bacchus, the Greek god of wine. In both, there is a baby Satyr. Mythological creatures symbolised the ideal virtues displayed by the ancient gods.

Thorvaldsen had a studio in Rome for 40 years, where he employed a number of assistants to help create his work. One such assistant, named Ludwig von Hofer (1801-1887), received payment for an adaptation of these reliefs. This may imply that Thorvaldsen trusted Von Hofer to carry out his work. These reliefs are half of a set of four, though it is undocumented how many were adapted from the original plaster cast created by Thorvaldsen.

Charles Darwin and his Discoveries

Charles Darwin and his Discoveries

Charles Darwin and his Discoveries
(Sculpture 6 of 11)

- Jason Thomson
- 1998
- Oak
- Each panel HWD/cm: 252 x 350 x 3.5
- ID: 686
- Alfred Denny Building, Ground Floor Reception

Upon entrance to the Alfred Denny Building, you are greeted by a huge 7-panel sculpture depicting the discoveries of Charles Darwin. Alfred Denny (1860 - 1947) was the University's first Professor of Biology, and the building named after him houses the Biomedical Science and Animal & Plant Science departments.

Jason Thomson [https://www.instagram.com/jasonthomsonsculpture, active c.1989-), a local sculptor, was commissioned to create these panels. Thomson's studio is on Brown Street in Sheffield, and his medium and scale of output varies substantially from stone to bone, metal to wood. This carved relief was made from a single oak tree. Each panel reflects a range of interests among the students and staff in the department. For example, Darwin is depicted amidst the skull of a gorilla and a fossil, representing the theory of evolution. The pile of books is indicative of both Darwin's research and the scholarship produced by the department.

Four Rings

Four Rings

Four Rings
(Sculpture 7 of 11)

- Austin Wright
- 1960
- Aluminium
- HWD/cm: 47 x 72 x 40
- ID: 523
- Western Bank Library, Ground Floor

Austin Wright (1911-1997) was a sculptor known for his imaginative metalwork and he used aluminium when creating Four Rings. The rings are rough and skeletal in shape, with varying textures on each surface. The base is smooth on top but scraped round the edges, and the rings themselves have an organic texture which illustrates Wright's commitment to representing naturality. Wright moved to his 'adopted county' of Yorkshire in 1937, where he was inspired by the local landscape, and the ring form is recurrent in his art.

Four Rings is asymmetrical and offers a 360 viewpoint where the form changes depending on which angle it is observed from. It was exhibited in Western Bank Library in 1960 when the library building was completed. The Sheffield University's Fine Art Society organised the exhibition and purchased the sculpture, later donating it to the University Heritage Collections in the 1990s.

Henry Clifton Sorby

Henry Clifton Sorby

Henry Clifton Sorby
(Sculpture 8 of 11)

- Attributed to William Ellis
- C.1882
- Carrara Marble
- HWD/cm: 68.3 x 22.5 x 20
- ID: 533
- Department of Geography and Urban Planning Building, B Floor Corridor

Henry Clifton Sorby (1826-1908) was one of the original benefactors of Firth College, now the University of Sheffield. He became the first president of the University in 1882. To this day he is internationally acclaimed for his work in geology, with many journals and organisations existing in his name, such as the Sorby Natural History Society. The society organises events and publishes a monthly newsletter relating to geology and wildlife conservation.

Due to his popularity, various busts of Sorby exist around Sheffield. This has led to discussion about who the sculptor was. A plaster cast was given to Weston Park Museum in 1882 by William Ellis (c.1824-1882), and it is believed that the University's sculpture is the marble version of this cast. Ellis was a member of the Sheffield Society of Artists and was a relatively successful portrait sculptor.

The Flipped-out Base

The Flipped-out Base

The Flipped-out Base
(Sculpture 9 of 11)

- Andrew Langley
- 2005
- Stainless Steel
- HWD/cm: 74 x 191 x 54.5
- ID: 1525
- Richard Roberts Building, Ground Floor Atrium

One base of this DNA strand is flipped out to represent the discovery by Xiaodong Cheng and Richard Roberts (1943-). Together, they discovered the first base flip, a revolutionary breakthrough concerning the repairment of DNA. Roberts is an alumnus of the University of Sheffield, and he earned a Nobel Prize for his findings in 1993.

Andrew Langley (1967-) specialises in large metal sculptures. The inner bases of this sculpture are welded to the outer spiral, and they have a rainbow stain that occurs when steel is heated past a certain point. In diagrams of a base flip, the inner strands are often depicted in multicolour to indicate the various nucleobases, and the rainbow stain reflects this.

The Garden of Pooled Talents

The Garden of Pooled Talents

The Garden of Pooled Talents
(Sculpture 10 of 11)

- Studio Broadbent
- 2015
- Metal
- Each Ladle Pool Area: 3.6 x 2.6m
- ID: N/A
- Jessop West, External

This piece was installed in 2015 as part of the regeneration plan in the area between the Jessop West and Diamond buildings. It is not part of the Heritage Collection, but it is definitely worth seeing on the way. Two paths meet in the middle of this structure, drawing in arts and humanities students from Jessop West, and science-oriented students from the Diamond. They meet in the middle where the ladles tilt slightly inward, pouring and pooling their contents. From ground level they resemble ladles, nodding to Sheffield's history of cutlery-making. The ladles are identical other than their finish.

The landform was built onto an existing hard surface, known as a podium deck landscape, and it serves as a visual spectacle as much as an interactive feature. The plants change with the seasons and are arranged in an outward rippling effect. Details on the types of plants and more information on the structure can be found here: https://www.nigeldunnett.com/garden-of-pooled-talents/.

Giant Buckyball C240

Giant Buckyball C240

Giant Buckyball C240
(Sculpture 11 of 11)

- UOS Central Mechanical Workshop
- 2005
- Stainless Steel
- HWD/cm: 120 x 145 x 140
- ID: 1177
- Kroto Research Institute, External

Harry Kroto (1939-2016), an alumnus of the University of Sheffield, discovered the buckyball in 1985. Kroto received a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996 for his breakthrough. Buckyballs are made of carbon atoms and are hollow like a ball. The phenomenon was so named because of its resemblance to the domed projects of architect Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983, https://www.bfi.org/about-fuller/).

Kroto's work went beyond his scientific research, and he was extraordinarily passionate about making science accessible for the younger generations. He visited the University of Sheffield every year after his discovery to run workshops on his research and to expose South Yorkshire Schools to an engaging and practical side of science. Margaret Kroto, his wife, carried on his legacy after his death in 2016 made a donation that helped launch the Kroto Family Education Foundation, which gives young people the chance to study buckyballs in a Kroto School Laboratory.

Scroll left Scroll right

My University of Sheffield Heritage Collection Sculpture Map Notes

University of Sheffield Heritage Collection Sculpture Map

University of Sheffield Heritage Collection Sculpture Map

This map takes you on a tour to see 11 impressive sculptures that are part of the University Heritage Collection, and are displayed across the University of Sheffield campus. All information researched and written by Murray Wood, MA History.

You can follow the map to see the sculptures in person or do a virtual tour. We recommend starting the tour at number 1 in the student villages, so that the hills work in your favour!

It takes approximately 2 hours to complete the tour and every sculpture is accessible by wheelchair, but you may need to check with building porters on your arrival for access. Sculptures inside university buildings will only be accessible during that building's opening hours, which is usually 9am-5pm during term time.

Disclaimer: All images are courtesy of the University of Sheffield. All Copyright belong to The Artists respectively.

Visit Website

 

  1. Introduction
    1. These terms and conditions govern your use of our website.
    2. By using our website, you accept these terms and conditions in full; accordingly, if you disagree with these terms and conditions or any part of these terms and conditions, you must not use our website.
    3. If you submit any material to our website or use any of our website services, we will ask you to expressly agree to these terms and conditions.
    4. You must be at least 13 years of age to use our website; and by using our website or agreeing to these terms and conditions, you warrant and represent to us that you are at least 13 years of age.
    5. Our website uses cookies; by using our website or agreeing to these terms and conditions, you consent to our use of cookies.
  2. Copyright notice
    1. Copyright (c) 2024 University of Sheffield Sculpture Walk.
    2. Subject to the express provisions of these terms and conditions:
      (a)we, together with our licensors, own and control all the copyright and other intellectual property rights in our website and the material on our website; and
      (b)all the copyright and other intellectual property rights in our website and the material on our website are reserved.
  3. Licence to use website
    1. You may:
      (a)view pages from our website in a web browser;
      (b)download pages from our website for caching in a web browser;
      (c)print pages from our website;
      (d)stream audio and video files from our website; and
      (e)use our website services by means of a web browser,
      subject to the other provisions of these terms and conditions.
    2. Except as expressly permitted by the other provisions of these terms and conditions, you must not download any material from our website or save any such material to your computer.
    3. You may only use our website for your own personal and business purposes and you must not use our website for any other purposes.
    4. Except as expressly permitted by these terms and conditions, you must not edit or otherwise modify any material on our website.
    5. Unless you own or control the relevant rights in the material, you must not:
      (a)republish material from our website (including republication on another website);
      (b)sell, rent or sub-license material from our website;
      (c)show any material from our website in public;
      (d)exploit material from our website for a commercial purpose; or
      (e)redistribute material from our website.
    6. We reserve the right to restrict access to areas of our website, or indeed our whole website, at our discretion; you must not circumvent or bypass, or attempt to circumvent or bypass, any access restriction measures on our website.
  4. Acceptable use
    1. You must not:
      (a)use our website in any way or take any action that causes, or may cause, damage to the website or impairment of the performance, availability or accessibility of the website;
      (b)use our website in any way that is unlawful, illegal, fraudulent or harmful, or in connection with any unlawful, illegal, fraudulent or harmful purpose or activity;
      (c)use our website to copy, store, host, transmit, send, use, publish or distribute any material which consists of (or is linked to) any spyware, computer virus, Trojan horse, worm, keystroke logger, rootkit or other malicious computer software;
      (d)conduct any systematic or automated data collection activities (including without limitation scraping, data mining, data extraction and data harvesting) on or in relation to our website without our express written consent;
      (e)access or otherwise interact with our website using any robot, spider or other automated means;
      (f)violate the directives set out in the robots.txt file for our website; or
      (g)use data collected from our website for any direct marketing activity (including without limitation email marketing, SMS marketing, telemarketing and direct mailing).
    2. You must not use data collected from our website to contact individuals, companies or other persons or entities.
    3. You must ensure that all the information you supply to us through our website, or in relation to our website, is true, accurate, current, complete and non-misleading.
  5. Posting material
    1. To be eligible to post information on our website you must be at least 13 years of age and resident in the United Kingdom.
  6. User IDs and passwords
    1. If you register for an account with our website, we will provide you with a user ID and password.
    2. Your user ID must not be liable to mislead and must comply with the content rules set out in Section 9; you must not use your account or user ID for or in connection with the impersonation of any person.
    3. You must keep your password confidential.
    4. You must notify us in writing immediately if you become aware of any disclosure of your password.
    5. You are responsible for any activity on our website arising out of any failure to keep your password confidential, and may be held liable for any losses arising out of such a failure.
  7. Cancellation and suspension of account
    1. We may:
      (a)suspend your account;
      (b)cancel your account; and/or
      (c)edit your account details,
      at any time in our sole discretion without notice or explanation.
  8. Your content: licence
    1. In these terms and conditions, "your content" means all works and materials (including without limitation text, graphics, images, audio material, video material, audio-visual material, scripts, software and files) that you submit to us or our website for storage or publication on, processing by, or transmission via, our website.
    2. You grant to us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, store, adapt, publish, translate and distribute your content in any existing or future media / reproduce, store and publish your content on and in relation to this website and any successor website / reproduce, store and, with your specific consent, publish your content on and in relation to this website.
    3. You hereby waive all your moral rights in your content to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law; and you warrant and represent that all other moral rights in your content have been waived to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.
    4. Without prejudice to our other rights under these terms and conditions, if you breach any provision of these terms and conditions in any way, or if we reasonably suspect that you have breached these terms and conditions in any way, we may delete, unpublish or edit any or all of your content.
  9. Your content: rules
    1. You warrant and represent that your content will comply with these terms and conditions.
    2. Your content must not be illegal or unlawful, must not infringe any person's legal rights, and must not be capable of giving rise to legal action against any person (in each case in any jurisdiction and under any applicable law).
    3. Your content, and the use of your content by us in accordance with these terms and conditions, must not:
      (a)be libellous or maliciously false;
      (b)be obscene or indecent;
      (c)infringe any copyright, moral right, database right, trade mark right, design right, right in passing off, or other intellectual property right;
      (d)infringe any right of confidence, right of privacy or right under data protection legislation;
      (e)constitute negligent advice or contain any negligent statement;
      (f)constitute an incitement to commit a crime[, instructions for the commission of a crime or the promotion of criminal activity;
      (g)be in contempt of any court, or in breach of any court order;
      (h)be in breach of racial or religious hatred or discrimination legislation;
      (i)be blasphemous;
      (j)be in breach of official secrets legislation;
      (k)be in breach of any contractual obligation owed to any person;
      (l)depict violence, in an explicit, graphic or gratuitous manner;
      (m) be pornographic, lewd, suggestive or sexually explicit;
      (n)be untrue, false, inaccurate or misleading;
      (o)consist of or contain any instructions, advice or other information which may be acted upon and could, if acted upon, cause illness, injury or death, or any other loss or damage;
      (p)constitute spam;
      (q)contain pictures of children under the age of 16 years whose parental consent hasn't been completly gained;
      (r)be offensive, deceptive, fraudulent, threatening, abusive, harassing, anti-social, menacing, hateful, discriminatory or inflammatory; or
      (s)cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to any person.
    4. Your content must be appropriate, civil and tasteful, and accord with generally accepted standards of etiquette and behaviour on the internet.
    5. You must not use our website to link to any website or web page consisting of or containing material that would, were it posted on our website, breach the provisions of these terms and conditions.
    6. You must not submit to our website any material that is or has ever been the subject of any threatened or actual legal proceedings or other similar complaint.
  10. Report abuse
    1. If you learn of any unlawful material or activity on our website, or any material or activity that breaches these terms and conditions, please let us know.
    2. You can let us know by email by clicking here: e.j.green@sheffield.ac.uk
  11. Limited warranties
    1. We do not warrant or represent:
      (a)the completeness or accuracy of the information published on our website;
      (b)that the material on the website is up to date; or
      (c)that the website or any service on the website will remain available.
    2. We reserve the right to discontinue or alter any or all of our website services, and to stop publishing our website, at any time in our sole discretion without notice or explanation; and save to the extent that these terms and conditions expressly provide otherwise, you will not be entitled to any compensation or other payment upon the discontinuance or alteration of any website services, or if we stop publishing the website.
    3. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law we exclude all representations and warranties relating to the subject matter of these terms and conditions, our website and the use of our website.
  12. Limitations and exclusions of liability
    1. Nothing in these terms and conditions will:
      (a)limit or exclude any liability for death or personal injury resulting from negligence;
      (b)limit or exclude any liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation;
      (c)limit any liabilities in any way that is not permitted under applicable law; or
      (d)exclude any liabilities that may not be excluded under applicable law.
    2. The limitations and exclusions of liability set out elsewhere in these terms and conditions:
      (a)govern all liabilities arising under these terms and conditions or relating to the subject matter of these terms and conditions, including liabilities arising in contract, in tort (including negligence) and for breach of statutory duty.
    3. To the extent that our website and the information and services on our website are provided free of charge, we will not be liable for any loss or damage of any nature.
    4. We will not be liable to you in respect of any losses arising out of any event or events beyond our reasonable control.
    5. We will not be liable to you in respect of any business losses, including (without limitation) loss of or damage to profits, income, revenue, use, production, anticipated savings, business, contracts, commercial opportunities or goodwill.
    6. We will not be liable to you in respect of any loss or corruption of any data, database or software.
    7. We will not be liable to you in respect of any special, indirect or consequential loss or damage.
    8. You accept that we have an interest in limiting the personal liability of our officers and employees and, having regard to that interest, you acknowledge that we are a limited liability entity; you agree that you will not bring any claim personally against our officers or employees in respect of any losses you suffer in connection with the website or these terms and conditions (this will not, of course, limit or exclude the liability of the limited liability entity itself for the acts and omissions of our officers and employees).
  13. Indemnity
    1. You hereby indemnify us, and undertake to keep us indemnified, against any and all losses, damages, costs, liabilities and expenses (including without limitation legal expenses and any amounts paid by us to a third party in settlement of a claim or dispute) incurred or suffered by us and arising directly or indirectly out of:
      (a)any breach by you of any provision of these terms and conditions; or
      (b)your use of our website.
  14. Breaches of these terms and conditions
    1. Without prejudice to our other rights under these terms and conditions, if you breach these terms and conditions in any way, or if we reasonably suspect that you have breached these terms and conditions in any way, we may:
      (a)send you one or more formal warnings;
      (b)temporarily suspend your access to our website;
      (c)permanently prohibit you from accessing our website;
      (d)block computers using your IP address from accessing our website;
      (e)contact any or all your internet service providers and request that they block your access to our website;
      (f)commence legal action against you, whether for breach of contract or otherwise; and/or
      (g)suspend or delete your account on our website.
    2. Where we suspend or prohibit or block your access to our website or a part of our website, you must not take any action to circumvent such suspension or prohibition or blocking (including without limitation creating and/or using a different account).
  15. Third party websites
    1. Our website includes hyperlinks to other websites owned and operated by third parties; such hyperlinks are not recommendations.
  16. Competitions
    1. From time to time we may run competitions, free prize draws and/or other promotions on our website.
    2. Competitions will be subject to separate terms and conditions (which we will make available to you as appropriate).
  17. Variation
    1. We may revise these terms and conditions from time to time.
    2. The revised terms and conditions will apply to the use of our website from the date of their publication on the website, and you hereby waive any right you may otherwise have to be notified of, or to consent to, revisions of the terms and conditions. / We will give you written notice of any revision of these terms and conditions, and the revised terms and conditions will apply to the use of our website from the date that we give you such notice; if you do not agree to the revised terms and conditions, you must stop using our website.
    3. If you have given your express agreement to these terms and conditions, we will ask for your express agreement to any revision of these terms and conditions; and if you do not give your express agreement to the revised terms and conditions within such period as we may specify, we will disable or delete your account on the website, and you must stop using the website.
  18. Assignment
    1. You hereby agree that we may assign, transfer, sub-contract or otherwise deal with our rights and/or obligations under these terms and conditions.
    2. You may not without our prior written consent assign, transfer, sub-contract or otherwise deal with any of your rights and/or obligations under these terms and conditions.
  19. Severability
    1. If a provision of these terms and conditions is determined by any court or other competent authority to be unlawful and/or unenforceable, the other provisions will continue in effect.
    2. If any unlawful and/or unenforceable provision of these terms and conditions would be lawful or enforceable if part of it were deleted, that part will be deemed to be deleted, and the rest of the provision will continue in effect.
  20. Third party rights
    1. These terms and conditions are for our benefit and your benefit, and are not intended to benefit or be enforceable by any third party.
    2. The exercise of the parties' rights under these terms and conditions is not subject to the consent of any third party.
  21. Law and jurisdiction
    1. These terms and conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English law.
    2. Any disputes relating to these terms and conditions shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England.
  22. Our details
    1. This website is licensed and operated by University of Sheffield Heritage Collection Sculpture Map.
    2. You can contact us by using by email to e.j.green@sheffield.ac.uk
Close