Project Black Jack - restoring Cirencester's statues

The project aims to place two bronze statues in the Parish Church Tower, and to celebrate the arrival of new works of art in the town by a community event. The commission for the tower statues has been awarded to Rodney Munday after a national design competition. They replace two 15th century statues which were taken down in the mid 1960s (as they were unsafe) and subsequently lost. The statues represent St John the Baptist (after whom the church is named) and the Virgin. St Johns statue is particularly iconic as its nickname "Black Jack" is alleged to have given the name to a local street.