THE sculpture gifted to Salcombe and its residents was unveiled and blessed at Holy Trinity Church last weekend.

The artwork, designed and created by Jim Martins, was gifted to the church on Sunday, December 20, at the Nine Lessons Christmas service.

The service, attended by around 100 people and led by Father Daniel French, saw the congregation sing Christmas carols and listen to readings before Jim gave a short talk on the sculpture and it was unveiled and blessed by Father Daniel. There was then mince pies and mulled wine to finish the day off in festive style.

‘People have been very, very complimentary,’ said Jim, who began work on the sculpture five years ago. ‘The lighting is still a work in progress but I’m pleased with it. I could always tweak it, but I have to let it go, like a child growing up.’

Jim said that like his sculpture in Hannaford’s Landing of the shipwright at the entrance to the Island Street Bar and Grill, it will always be ‘his’ but it now belongs to the church and the people of Salcombe.

Father Daniel said he was ‘very moved’ by the sculpture. ‘When Jim first put the idea to me five years ago, I thought it would be appropriate to make it about the community of Salcombe and to capture the abundance and generosity, which he has.

‘I was taken aback by the amount of detail and incredible texture in the piece; Jim is a very gifted sculptor. He has captured the different textures with the sand, the crabs, the loaves, the fish and the service of the ocean has all been picked out.

‘Its very dynamic with a lot of movement in it, which is rare for a sculpture, but with the path moving from the sea and the land up to the church, there is an almost dizzying sense f movement.

‘We have all been very excited the last few weeks in the run up to the installation and we are very grateful to Jim for his gift to the church.

‘I mentioned at the beginning of the project that the Hoy Trinity would be a good thing to include, because it is the Holy Trinity Church, and Jim has done that subtly with the cross, the church and the abundance of creation that is depicted.

‘He has very cleverly included a lot of symbolism and meaning into the piece.’

Father Daniel went on to say that Salcombe is a place where things were often ‘done to the town and by the town, so it is great to have something done for the town’.

The sculpture can be seen in the Holy Trinity Church in Salcombe and you can find out more about Jim Martins via his website: www.jimmartinssculptor.co.uk