Ellesmere international arts hub

Similar installations are planned for Ellesmere town centre and canal wharf

North Shropshire campaigners are hoping to turn Ellesmere into a centre for international arts.

Thanks to a £21,000 grant from Arts Council England and the support of Wood Lane Quarry, the first in a series of permanent exhibitions has been installed in the Castlefields meadow.

Six sculptures by artists from across the world overlook The Mere.

The pieces have been specially created, inspired by the area's geology as well as the immediate landscape.

The project is the brainchild of Ellesmere Sculpture Initiative (ESI). The group hope not only to establish Ellesmere as a cultural hub, but also to enhance people's enjoyment of the local landscape.

The move follows Ellesmere's experience during the Extramuros exhibition, which launched in the town in March 2007, before touring other parts of Europe.

Two years on and an Arts Council England grant, backed by local fundraising and goodwill, allowed ESI to bring six artists from Argentina, Portugal, Hungary and Britain to Ellesmere.

The six sculptures will remain on view in Castlefields indefinitely

After a two-day symposium the artists were shown the specific location their works would sit, before going to a local quarry to select their pieces of stone - either slate, granite or sandstone, all remnants of Ellesmere's Ice Age past.

Former Chief Executive of Oswestry's Qube Gallery, Trudi Graham explained the appeal of this exhibition: "What is nice is when you go up there and see each individual piece, it actually makes you see the countryside in a different way.

"One of the Argentinian artists has actually used his piece to actually frame the view of The Mere."

Artist Tom Gillespie from Llanfyllin took his inspiration from the castle, combined with its geology and the story of Ellesmere's ice age formation.

"People think about all these stone as static, because they're big and sit on the ground and nobody can move them. But they've travelled for miles and they've come from all over the British Isles to this point... from the glacial period."

The sculptures will remain on show in the Castlefields meadow indefinitely. Similar installations have been earmarked for other locations in Ellesmere over the next few years.