Member Article

Yorkshire’s best art project baaa none?

A Yorkshire tourist attraction is hoping visitors will flock to see its new attraction with help from two Barnsley-based businesses – dozens of sheep with words stencilled on their woolly coats.

From July to September, Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) will be animated by the sheep as part of a project called Write to Roam.

Barnsley-based laser firm Cutting Technologies has created 130 stencil words which have been spray-painted on to 150 sheep. The words include Flock, Ha ha (a term for a landscape feature), Free and Thissen (Barnsley dialect for “yourself”).

The words have been taken from research into the history of the ancient land of the Bretton Estate, now run by YSP, and are applied to the sheep as they have a right to graze the land.

The sheep were stencilled with a harmless natural vegetable dye and will wear their painted woolly jumpers throughout summer.

Designer Alison Cooper, of Barnsley-based The White Room Interior Design, had an initial trial last year at Cannon Hall Farm.

She said: “Last year, during a country walk in Derbyshire, I noticed a flock of sheep, all walking in a line. It struck me that it might prove fascinating, and possibly amusing, if each carried a different word to create various, random messages.

“I met with the farmer at Cannon Hall and learned that the annual marking of sheep (using safe, natural inks) notes the sex of lambs and numbers each with its mother. With the farmer’s co-operation a trial project was undertaken, applying carefully selected words to 30 of his sheep.

“This small, private project proved a success in testing application, legibility and logistics and gave me the encouragement to approach the YSP.”


 The sheep at YSP belong to Charles Platt at Home Farm. Alison sprayed the words through the stencils in the pen installation at YSP, a sculpture in itself “Shadow Stone Fold” 2007 by Andy Goldsworthy.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mark Lane .