A SCULPTURE has been unveiled at the New Selby War Memorial Hospital which celebrates the hospital’s history.

The Selby Medal, which has been put up on a pedestrian island in the centre of the new complex, was designed and made by Mark Renn, after it was chosen by a panel of hospital workers and community members following an open competition.

The 3.3 metre-high bronze sculpture, a commission which cost £20,000, consists of three pieces of a penny which can be seen as a whole from one viewpoint when leaving the building, and refers to the original hospital in two ways. The original subscription for fundraising by the population of Selby was a penny per month, and the sculpture also bears the date of the original hospital’s opening, in 1927.

Hospital site administrator Julie Corbally and acting clinical lead Helen Elps visited the sculpture, which also includes a plaque explaining the meaning of the design.

Jayne Brown, chief executive of NHS North Yorkshire and York, told The Press when the sculpture was commissioned: “We know the strength of feeling in the town about remembering the efforts of those who paid for the original War Memorial Hospital, and we wanted to do something to reflect this.”