A £50,000 repair for your honest sonsie faces

Published on Friday 28 January 2011 15:25

REPAIR work is set to start on an antique statue of Robert Burns which was vandalised in West Lothian more than 30 years ago.

The three-tonne marble statue of Burns and Mary Campbell (Highland Mary), which was left missing two heads and five limbs after being vandalised in the 1970s, will cost around 50,000 to repair.

The Bathgate Historic Conservation Society, which wants to restore the seven-foot statue to its former glory, has been trying to raise the money since January 2009 and received the final piece of funding earlier this month.

The sculpture will now be fully restored and displayed as the centrepiece of the garden at Bathgate's new Lindsay House in around a year's time.

Joe Welsh, a member of Bathgate Historic Conservation Society, said: "We are absolutely delighted that this project is moving forward and we look forward to viewing the work in progress and to the finished job.

"As a group we intend to press Historic Scotland for the restored statue to be recognised as a listed property."

He added: "Our project did not fit the criteria of any funding source that we approached. It seemed that nobody was interested in the restoration of art.

"We were very lucky that Stuart Eydmann, a senior planner with West Lothian Council, took an interest in the statue.

"If it hadn't been for Stuart's interest in the statue then I don't think we would have got where we are today."

The majority of funding was provided by Maple Oak PLC, which contributed to the council's public art fund in compliance with the outline planning consent for the redevelopment of the former Edgar Allen Works at Whitburn Road in Bathgate.

West Lothian Council contributed around 15,000 from the Bathgate Partnership Centre project budget.

The restoration work, which will be undertaken by Edinburgh-based restorer Graciela Ainsworth, is expected to get under way next month and will take around a year to complete.

She will also deliver public talks, demonstrations and sculpture workshops in the city as part of the repair work.

West Lothian's executive councillor for culture and leisure, Jim Walker, said: "It is fantastic news that the funds have been secured and that work can start on restoring this historic statue to its former glory. We will all look forward to seeing it sited at the new Lindsay House."

Sculpted by Victorian artist Hamilton C MacCarthy in around 1888, the white marble artwork was gifted to Bathgate Town Council in the early 1950s. The sculpture took pride of place in Bathgate's Kirkton Park for more than 20 years until it was vandalised, after which it was locked inside a park shed in Bathgate for more than three decades.

Mr Welsh, 77, who lives in Bathgate, added: "One of Robert's legs and arms is missing, and both of Mary's legs and one of her arms is missing. The culprits who vandalised the statue were never found."

The Bathgate Historic Conservation Society believes that the repaired structure will be worth at least 500,000.