Civic ceremony to mark end of ‘evocative’ Knife Angel sculpture installation in Wrexham

The Mayor of Wrexham bid a formal farewell to the Knife Angel in the city centre last night.

Completed in 2018 The Knife Angel also known as the National Monument Against Violence and Aggression has toured the country, bringing with it an awareness of the consequences caused in society by violence and crime – especially knife crime. Knife crime in Wrexham is thankfully extremely rare and is not the reason why the statue is visiting the area.

Speaking last night the Mayor, Cllr Brian Cameron, gave a speech that touched on the meaning of the installation, “It gives me great pleasure to be here to join you at the end of a very successful visit from the Knife Angel sculpture. To mark the start, and then the end of its tenure in Wrexham is a real privilege for myself Mayor.

“It has been a campaign that has started a much needed conversation to break taboos and bring about an end to knife crime. I have no doubt that the presence of the Knife Angel has been extremely evocative.

“The volume of people stopping to look at it whilst on their daily commute or wander through town has been incredible. The floods of pictures posted online by people capturing the moments of seeing such a spectacular monument is more than just a memory shared by social media.

“Again, it is a conversation piece that spreads a message, a message to say that we cannot continue to have knife crime within our societies, not just here in Wrexham, that goes for every community around the globe. This knife angel has brought much needed awareness to so many people and I hope that it is a sobering reminder of what has unfortunately happened in the past due such acts of violence.”

Alfie Bradley, the artist who created the sculpture, also spoke about his creation, “I’m so chuffed it is here now because one of the first families that we spoke with was the Maddocks family that are here now. I know we’ve been trying to get it to Wrexham for years and years and years – and it is finally here now.

“I really hope that the angel really put the message out there the dangers of knife crime and violence. I hope that young people or people, middle aged people, anyone that’s come here has really got the message and the people are going to talk about it.

“Every weapon that is on this angel, every police force in the UK gave us weapons that they’ve seized or taken off the streets, or taken off crimes. So they gave us the weapons.

“As the weapons came in I had to bleach them and blunt them all so they’re not sharp or dangerous anymore. Then I separated them by different coloured handles, different size blades. So as you can see on the angel, there’s all the different shapes and sizes. So I played around with all the colours, and the idea is on the blades when it’s lit up at nighttime, it’ll glow differently, almost like a diamond off the angel.”

Danny Maddocks spoke, “Nine years ago our family lost my brother Craig. Craig was a much loved son, father, uncle, a friend to many. The shock and sadness of losing him just 34 years old, it is something as a family we have never got over. The grief was so much harder under the circumstances and the fact that he was killed by someone using a knife.

“Craig was a talented boxer that never would have fought outside of the ring. He would never have fought with a knife. He had no chance to defend himself. As a family we are involved in the Knife Angel and what it stands for.

“We also set up an organisation called On The Knife Edge. I wanted to do this to stop people carrying knives and other families suffering the pain what we have. I have worked alongside the Youth Justice Service and North Wales Police to educate people on the dangers of knife crime. We want less people carrying knives around Wrexham, if they don’t carry them, they won’t use them.

“We have seen an impact already by knives that have been collected from knife banks. We will continue our hard work to keep knives out of Wrexham and other families going through what we have.”

“If you are willing to carry a knife you are willing to use a knife.”

“Remember, one night of madness can give many years of sadness.”

The Police and Crime Commissioner led a minutes silence to remember those lost to knife crime – a video from that moment below via Calon FM’s full stream of the event that can be found here that includes all the speeches in full.

Standing at 8.2m (27ft) tall and weighing 3.5 tons – the sculpture and is made from over 100,000 seized knives and weapons collected from all 43 Police Constabularies across the UK and has found a home on Queen’s Square for the last few weeks.

The Knife Angel is leaving Wrexham early next week, and will be installed in Newport in its next step around the UK.

An honour to attend this evenings closing ceremony of the “knife Angel” in @wrexham This striking sculpture has attracted much attention and helped raise awareness of knife crime. pic.twitter.com/UlOiFiQxp7

— Nigel Williams (@NigelSouthsea) October 26, 2022