Patrick Comerford
I was writing yesterday about Fritz Steller’s paired mural ‘Communication and Documentation’ at the entrance to Tamworth Library. But Tamworth has impressive outdoors works of sculpture too, including Luke Perry’s sculpture of Æthelflæd, near the train station (26 July 2023), and Walenty Pytel’s ‘Anchor’ sculpture in Saint Editha’s Square, commemorating Colin Grazier (23 February 2023).
The Polish-born sculptor Walenty Pytel also created the Planet Walk in the castle grounds, which was commissioned in 2000 to mark the millennium. The Planet Walk was the brainchild of Tamworth’s Town Twinning Association, and it is based on a similar trail created in Bad Laasphe, Tamworth’s twin town in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany.
Walenty Pytel designed the trail with the sun and nine planets in his studio in Ross-on-Wye. The distances between each of the planets was designed to relatively represent the distance between the planets in the solar system, to give some concept of the distance between us and our neighbouring – or not so neighbouring – planets.
Some of the original planets now seem to be missing. The trail takes 15-25 minutes to walk, and is easily followed by young and old alike, by with red rockets laid into the ground leading a trail around the galaxy.
Walenty Pytel is an internationally renowned artist and is recognised as a leading metal sculptor of birds and beasts. He created the Colin Grazier statue in Saint Editha’s Square, Tamworth, in 2002. His work also appears at the entrance to Birmingham International Airport and outside the House of Commons.
Pytel was born in 1941 in German-occupied Poland during World War II. Because of his blond features, the Nazis kidnapped him from his mother Jadwiga Pytel and had him adopted by a Gestapo officer and his childless wife. However, his mother escaped from a prison camp, snatched him from outside the couple’s home and fled Poland with him across the Alps to Italy.
He came to England at the age of five and later studied graphic design at Hereford College of Arts. After working in a publishing studio in London, he opened two studios in Hereford in 1963, initially focusing on paper sculptures for window displays but turned to metal two years later.
His first public commission came in 1965, when Hereford City Council paid £100 for Christmas decorations. Three stainless-steel angels arranged in a triangle for the centre of High Town and 400 thin metal stars were erected in the city. The works have been lost since then.
His creations are often inspired by nature and his work includes the Jubilee Fountain in New Palace Yard, Westminster, ‘Take Off’ at Birmingham Airport, and one of Europe’s largest metalwork sculptures, ‘The Fossor’ (1979), at the headquarters of JCB in Rocester, Staffordshire.
Pytel was commissioned to create four huge steel eagles for the Portuguese football club Benfica in 2005. A year later, his career was disrupted after a fall in 2006 resulted in a loss of memory. However, at 83, he has continued to receive commissions for public sculptures and he continues to live near Ross-on-Wye.
