The sculpture shows two barrels, with a herring girl seated on one (which would have been filled with herring), holding herring in each hand. She represents the women who followed the route of the herring from northern Scotland south along the east coast of England. They would gut and salt the fish as they were they were landed. Her knitting on the needles, sits on top of one of the barrels. The work commemorates the important role of women in the fishing industry from the eighteenth century to 1960s.

Text from Art UK

Object description
Type: Sculpture
Location: Bell Street, North Shields, Tyne & Wear
Material: Steel
Artist: Ray Lonsdale (b.1965)
Date: 2023

Image Details
Date: 26 September 2023
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Wide Camera 26mm ƒ/1.8
Focal Length: 26mm
Aperture: ƒ/1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/2,915s
ISO: 25
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International