THE KNIFE ANGEL by Alfie Bradley.

First we fed the ducks and then we went to see the Knife Angel and then we had a bath in a box.

Save a Life, Surrender your Knife.

The Knife Angel is 27ft high and is made from 100,000 knives that have been surrendered to knife banks all over the country.

It came to Chester for the month of November as part of its UK tour.

It was made at the Ironworks Centre in Oswestry out of 100,000 knives that had been handed in to the 200 knife banks across the UK which were set up by the Ironworks in a project to bring awareness to knife crime and  to promote peace

Artist  Alfie Bradley discussed the idea of creating an Angel sculpture out of knives to bring knife crime to the attention of society. He suggested knife amnesties, and with the Ironworks supplying knife bins and with co-operation from the police, the campaign took off.

Amnesties were run and knives were handed in anonymously in a total of 200 knife banks created at the Ironworks at their own cost.

Once the knives were brought to Shropshire, Alfie got cracking. He disinfected every blade (a third still had bodily fluids on them) and then blunted each one before welding them on to the sculpture. The wings were made of blades only.

Messages of hope and love have been engraved on some of the blades, Some from families who lost a loved one to knife crime but also some from perpetrators who have seen the error of their ways and now fight knife crime. Amazing,

What a superb and powerful piece of art.

Even Sophie was mesmerised by it.

And then she had a bath in a box.