I’m thrilled to have been asked by North Herts Council (special thank you to Danny Pearson) to be part of the brilliant ‘Walking with the Snowman’ trail in my hometown of Hitchin this Christmas!!
Sponsored by Cala Homes, there are 12 snowmen to find across the town, all designed by different artists from around the UK, each based on one of the 12 days of Christmas. There’s a special story behind my ‘Ten Lords a Leaping’ one…

‘Sarah’s take on ten lords a leaping was to transform them into ten leaping ginger bread lords. Sarah visited her old primary school, Oughton in Hitchin, to run a workshop with year 6 pupils for inspiration. She asked each of them to design their own leaping gingerbread lord, which they loved, and has combined elements from their designs into each of the 10 lords featured on the snowman. The design is very festive and also ties in nicely with Sarah’s work, which often features food and sweet treats.’

The sculptures were produced by Wild in Art, who put together all sorts of sculpture trails around the UK. Featuring the iconic Raymond Briggs snowman, designs had to get the thumbs up from Penguin publishers, who gave it the seal of approval.

It has been such a fun project to do, it’s my first piece of public art! Working with my old primary school was wonderful, it brought back so many happy memories of my time there, and hopefully inspired the pupils to know they can go on to do exciting things! Above are some pics of the workshop, and the students designs.

The snowman in pride of place in Hitchin’s Market Square

And finally I must thank my dear friend Sarah Booth for coming up with making the lords into gingerbread, genius!!

And there’s more info about it all here, where you can download a map. The trail runs until the 20th January, so do check it out!!