Late 2007 I was commissioned to produce a life size bronze sculpture of Stan Laurel by Wear Valley District Council for Bishop Auckland town centre.

To meet the deadline of July 2008 I decided to have the statue cast at my friend Lu Huagangs’ foundry in Chengdu in the province of Sichuan, China.

I arrived at the foundry mid February and began work the main figure in clay, the head had been modeled in my studio at home to save time. After three weeks I returned to the UK.

May 12ft mid way through the forty day casting process the great earthquake stuck, the epicenter only 40 km from Chengdu. Although the foundry was damaged the statue survived but the deadline had slipped by one month.

After the one thousand mile rail journey to Shanghai, Stan set sail for the UK, surviving a typhoon in the East China Sea, through Suez Canal, arriving undamaged at Bishop Auckland 18 July.

The statue stands proudly on Theatre Comer in the centre of Bishop Auckland the site of the Eden Theatre that was managed by Stan’s father and was unveiled Saturday 30ft August by Nancy Wardell Stan Laurel’s niece

The incredible eleven thousand mile journey would have made an excellent plot for a Laurel and Hardy movie!