Huge legends get their tiny tributes

Aug 6 2009 by Kim Carmichael, The Journal

SYMBOLISING goal-scoring greatness, these sculptures were destined to stand tall outside St James’s Park.

But despite being commissioned for the ground two years ago, the statues of Newcastle legends Alan Shearer and Jackie Milburn have only just surfaced 50 miles north at a hotel in Bamburgh.

The idea for the monument, intended to decorate the club’s city centre ground, came about towards the end of Freddy Shepherd’s reign when sculptor Tom Maley was commissioned to create the work.

Mr Maley, from Longhirst, near Morpeth, Northumberland, laboured for months on prototype figurines, which show Milburn about to cross the ball to Shearer, but the project was never completed after the club changed hands and interest apparently waned.

Now, in a bid to see the models given some of the attention they deserve, Jack Milburn junior, who took a close interest in the project, donated the prototypes to the newly-opened Milburn’s Sports Bar, based in Bamburgh’s Victoria Hotel.