Words by restorer Dale Wells:
"It has been an incredible day. In many ways it was the summation of many months of rescuing, researching, and restoring the monumental body of The Family Group and the drawing forth of the memories and emotions it both marks and elicits.
With the help of Darren Neave, Kerry Henderson, Oasis Academy Immingham, Blackrow Group, Grimsby, Cleethorpes & District Civic Society, and a million other amazing souls, not least those who donated to the restoration fund, this iconic work is back where it belongs. Not in a recycling centre, but back and proud on the wall of the Oasis Academy, Immingham.
I feel so incredibly privileged to have had the opportunity to restore the work to something of its former spirit, and will always count it as one of my most important achievements. More importantly, it shows that public sculpture is a force for good, a marker for poignancy and a symbol of place and endurance.
We can never let these things be taken from us, not simply slip from view."
