I am standing on the deserted shop floor of a Victorian mill in Wakefield, with the industrial history of Yorkshire spread out before me like a map. Down below, the River Calder, once so busy, is now a leisurely, peaceful place. Children play beside the water. There are fishermen on the banks. It’s a lot prettier than it used to be. It’s also a lot less businesslike. But among these redundant warehouses, a strange renaissance is taking place. This derelict mill reopened last month — not as a factory but as a new annex of the Hepworth, a museum that has welcomed nearly a million visitors in its first two years. Incongruously Yorkshire, a county built on hard graft, is becoming increasingly renowned as a centre of the sculptural arts.
The director of the Hepworth, Simon Wallis, shows me around this restored mill, now renamed the Calder Gallery. ‘There were piles of bird excrement — literally mountains of it!’ he says.
William Cook
Yorkshire: England’s sculptural heartland in the north
<em>William Cook</em> is inspired by England’s sculptural heartland in Yorkshire, just as Moore and Hepworth were
issue 21 September 2013
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in