IN FESTIVAL Square stands a statue of a farmer taking his sheep to market, entitled The Borderland Farmer.

The statue stands at 1.8 metres, and was created by Ivor Roberts-Jones, upon a commission which lasted from 1988 to 1992, to pay tribute to the time when the Smithfield was based on the site of what is now Central car park, on Smithfield Road and English Walls.

Mr Roberts-Jones was born in 1913, in Oswestry, where he studied at Oswestry School, before attending Worksop College, Goldsmiths College and then the Royal Academy for Arts, during the 1920s and 1930s.

After graduating, Mr Roberts-Jones joined the Army to serve in the Burma campaign, before taking up a teaching position at Goldsmiths in 1964.

Mr Roberts-Jones has sculpted a number of famous figures, such as:

- Prime ministers Clement Attlee (1977) and David Lloyd George (1978);

- the Great War poet Rupert Brooke, which stands today in Rugby (1988);

- Yahudi Menuin (1967);

- Viscount Tonypandy (1982); and

- Field Marshal Alanbrooke (1991-1993).

One of his most famous sculptures is of prime minister Winston Churchill. The commission was awarded to Mr Roberts-Jones in 1971 to produce a statue of Mr Churchill to place in Parliament Square, London.

The initial draft design was produced instantly but was widely disliked among the critiques; the head was a striking resemblance to Mr Churchill, but his posture was described as “not quite right of him at the pinnacle of his career”, with his eyes, cheeks, forehead and skull requiring drastic improvement.

One critique told Mr Roberts-Jones to his face that “above the eyes I thought I was looking at Mussolini”.

As a result, Mr Roberts Jones redesigned the draft to bring about a lowering of the forehead, therefore hiding the eyes.

Nevertheless, the statue of Mr. Churchill was considered such a huge success that Mr Roberts-Jones won commissions to build two more statues, for Solli Square in Oslo (1974-1976) and in central New Orleans, Louisiana (1974-1977).

This status also won him commissions to produce statues of The Marquis of Anglesey, Lord Tyrrell-Kenyon, Lord Chandos and Prince Philip, and the bronze sculpture of Two Kings which stands outside Harlech Castle, in similar styles, for the National Museum of Wales, the National Theatre, the Royal Society of General Practitioners and the Welsh Arts Council, respectively.

Mr Roberts-Jones died in 1996 while actually producing a statue at his studio in Shimpling, Norfolk.

The statue was Policeman Mourning a Dead Colleague which was commissioned for the National Police Memorial in London.

At the time of his death, Mr Roberts-Jones had already received a commission to produce another statue of Winston Churchill to stand in Prague.