Forth & Clyde Canal museum planned beside new Bella the Beithir artwork to showcase Glasgow’s forgotten pottery heritage

A museum showcasing the global reach of Glasgow’s past ceramics industry could be created at a new art park whose centrepiece has been launched with the unveiling of the head of 400ft-long (121m) mythical serpent Bella the Beithir.

The proposed centre would be built at the top of the park in the north west of the city overlooking the new Stockingfield Bridge over a junction on the Forth & Canal Canal, which provides a new connection between Maryhill, Gilshochill and Ruchill for the first time since the waterway was opened in 1790.

Glasgow had some of the largest pottery factories in the UK, rivaling those in Stoke-on-Trent, which exported ceramics across the world until the last one shut in the 1970s. Among them, Possil Pottery was said to have produced the finest porcelain in Europe.

Artists Ruth Impey and Nichol Wheatley beside the completed head of Bella The Beithir which they created, at its unveiling on March 1 beside Stockingfield Bridge on the Forth & Clyde Canal in Glasgow. (Photo by John Devlin/The Scotsman)

This heritage will initially be commemorated with thousands of tiles being added to the beithir’s body as her scales in a project expected to take five years and involve 30,000 people.

Ruth Impey, co-founder of Make It Glasgow, which is working on the project, told The Scotsman: “This is Scotland’s largest mosaic project. The idea is that just as the bridge has connected people again, the mosaic making will build relationships and potentially create positive change in the north west of Glasgow.

"We wouldn’t like to say we are competing with [Antoni Gaudí’s] Park Güell in Barcelona, but we are definitely looking at them.

"The history and heritage of ceramic making in Glasgow is not a story that’s often told.

So far mosaics have only been fixed to the head of the 400 feet long beithir. (Photo by The Scotsman)

“The majority of Glasgow’s industrial potteries were situated along the canal and we are trying to bring some of that manufacturing back and tell the stories of the people and the pots and the destination countries that this global trade was sent to.

"The long-term vision for the site after Bella is finished is to potentially to have a Scottish pottery museum at the top of the site, which will have a cafe, contemporary gallery space and a place where people can learn about the history and heritage of Scotland’s potteries.”

Ms Impey explained: “The beithir is one of five mythical water creatures in Scottish folklore and so she is a cousin of the Kelpies.

“She is a lightning serpent – she comes out during storms and if she sees you, you have to jump in water otherwise you’ll turn to stone. But our Bella is a friendly sort.”

Bella the Beithir's white body snaking through the site in 2022. (Photo by John Devlin/The Scotsman)

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Nichol Wheatley, who created Bella, said: "She’s named in honour of Alasdair Gray, one of our heroes in Glasgow, a man I had the privilege of working alongside for 15 years.”

Her name is taken from Bella Baxter, the main character in Gray’s novel Poor Things, whose film version starring Emma Stone has been nominated for 11 Oscars.

John Paterson, chief executive of Scottish Canals, which commissioned Bella, said that when the £14 million bridge was opened in 2022: “There was an opportunity to create something very special on the adjacent derelict land.

"Bella is the latest addition to 22 pieces of artwork here and is very much the jewel in the crown. She makes the place a destination as opposed to just a functional bridge.”