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A creative Nottinghamshire community is celebrating after it was named the winner of the AJ Bell Tour of Britain’s much-coveted land art competition.

Keyworth scooped the national award for its eye-catching hedgehog highway-themed design, which was created on the Rectory Field and captured from the air by ITV4’s cameras as the event passed through the village during the Nottinghamshire stage of the race last month.

Called ‘Spike on a Bike’, the design was a collaborative project by environment groups Keyworth Abundance and Wild Things Keyworth, together with artist Liz Waddell who designed it, members of the local community and schoolchildren.

The inspiration behind the land art was the community’s drive to encourage more people to help vulnerable hedgehogs move safely from garden to garden.

Councillor John Cottee, Nottinghamshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Communities and divisional ward member for Keyworth, said: “This is absolutely brilliant news and a fantastic reward for everyone in Keyworth who was involved with producing this truly eye-catching piece of land art to highlight a worthy cause.

“Our county is no stranger to rising to the challenge in this competition and I am delighted the community of Keyworth has been recognised for showcasing its creative talents. I would like to congratulate the village on its richly deserved success.

“The award is the icing on the cake for us after what was yet again a hugely successfully stage for Nottinghamshire.”  

The village’s success comes after Dale Road in Keyworth was crowned winner of ‘Britain’s Biggest Hedgehog Street’ earlier this month by wildlife charities The British Hedgehog Preservation Society and People’s Trust for Endangered Species.

Speaking about the village receiving the national land art award, Jennifer Manning-Ohren, founder of Wild Things Keyworth, said: “It was a wonderful, shared experience and I am so happy to have been a part of it.

“We are really attached to Spike and we are hoping to get smaller versions in place around the village.

“We wanted to raise awareness of the wild British hedgehog nationally as they are red listed and we were over the moon to get on the ITV4 live feed, as it wasn’t guaranteed.

“It was awesome when commentator Ned Boulting asked, ‘is that a hedgehog on a bike?’ We all thought, ‘yes, yes, it is’.

“Art, and specifically land art, is hugely impactful and a great way of getting the message across, Liz is very talented. We really hoped the Tour of Britain would enjoy ‘Spike on a Bike’ as much as we did.”

Tracey Lloyd, of Keyworth Abundance, said she was ‘thrilled’ the village’s design had won the award.

She said: “I thought the idea of ‘Spike on a Bike’ would be a great way to celebrate the wonderful Tour of Britain and get more recognition for the amazing work being done locally, to create hedgehog highways so these wonderful creatures have more safe routes in our village. 

“I'm thrilled that the judges liked our design and I hope it helps other places to follow Keyworth's lead."

Artist Liz Waddell revealed how she spent three days obtaining reclaimed wood, painting and working on Spike’s outline in a ‘very accommodating’ neighbour’s garden.

She said: “It was such a thrill when the drone went up and we saw what we had created – just from a hasty sketch on an A4 piece of paper, found materials and no experience of this kind of thing before.”

“We were very pleased with ourselves and felt it really got our message across.”

Cllr Tamsin Armour, Chair of Keyworth Parish Council, highlighted the community spirit as a significant factor in the success.

She said: “We are very proud of their combined efforts to not only effect behavioural change in the village in our climate fightback, but creating visibility on a national level too with this incredible land art.”

Congratulating Keyworth on its success, AJ Bell Tour of Britain race director, Mick Bennett, said this year’s land art competition attracted a high quality of entries.

He said: “It was overwhelming to see how much time and effort that so many people have put into our National Land Art Competition this year, the level of quality of all the entries was brilliant, and it was a challenge to choose just one winner.

“It was fascinating to learn about community work involved in the ‘Keyworth Hedgehog Highway’ and being able to share this cause with others fills me with joy.”

ENDS