Earls Barton: Artwork: 'Printed' by Steve Messam

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52 giant shoe prints striding 2km across the Northamptonshire countryside, a walk marked by crop cutting and digging the land.

Artist Steve Messam and a team of local volunteers began work on an ambitious series of giant shoe prints etched into the Northamptonshire landscape along the public footpath that connects the historic villages of Ecton, famous for its links to Benjamin Franklin, and Earls Barton, the home of Barker shoes.

The shoe prints measure roughly 15m x 3m and have been created using a combination of petrol brush cutters, manual lawnmowers, shears and rakes, and will gradually be worn away as the grass returns and the land is prepared for planting.

PRINTED aimed to reconnect the county’s boot and shoe industry with its rural landscape and the raw materials it provided i.e. grassland for pasture, cattle for leather hides, oak trees and water to aid the tanning process.

Unfortunately the artwork was never fully realised due to adverse weather conditions and harvesting schedules.

This page was added on 09/07/2013.

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