Business group Haverhill Enterprise calls on community to help raise £30,000 to light up unique Spirit of Enterprise sculpture

The business community of Haverhill is being asked contribute towards the £30,000 needed to reinstate lighting on the sculpture at the A1307 gateway to the town.

The Spirit of Enterprise sculpture (commonly referred to locally as the ‘toilet roll holder’) on the roundabout next to The EpiCentre, was opened in 2004 by Sturmer-born actress Charlotte Rampling.

It cost £100,000 to create and install and was paid for entirely by businesses in and near Haverhill, but in the last few years the lights have failed.

The sculpture project was led by Haverhill Enterprise, a not-for-profit group set up by businesses in Haverhill in 1994 to promote the town.

The group now hopes to have the lights reinstated and last Thursday, its chairman Tom Harrison explained more about it during an event at The EpiCentre.

Last year, said Mr Harrison, he was contacted by Richard Herbert, director of Haverhill Enterprise, who suggested ‘putting it in lights’ once again and the wheels were put in motion to realise that goal.

Mr Harrison said: “This year marks the Spirit’s 21st birthday so we thought it would be nice to put some candles on it in the form of new lighting.

“The lighting system’s estimated cost is about £30,000. We’ve already had a pledge from (developer) Jaynic, with the EpiCentre, of £3,000 so we’ve made a good start to the fund-raising and we are hoping the businesses in Haverhill will meet the rest of it.

”We believe Haverhill deserves a properly lit Spirit and we hope it will continue to advertise the energy and resilience and perhaps most of all the self-sufficiency we have in Haverhill.”

He added: “The original concept was to provide something that epitomised the spirit of enterprise in Haverhill, so it was something that people in Haverhill could at and say this reflects the spirit in my town and the enterprise in my town.”

At the meeting Mr Herbert, chairman of the Herbert Group, one of the original contributors to the installation of the sculpture designed by artist Rob Olins, said it is designed to look like a roll of textile being unfurled.

This, he said, was a nod to the huge part played in Haverhill’s history by the D Gurteen & Sons clothing factory.

Gurteen was one of the firms that backed he sculpture’s installation and Charlotte Rampling, who opened it in 2004, is a member of the family.

Donations to the project can be made here