A sculpture by Nottingham artist Andrew Smith of an ammonite fossil is being unveiled today (12 December) at Barrow upon Soar, Leicestershire.

Several fossils have been found in the parish and there is already a fossil trail through the village. Some years ago it was decided that there should be a sign to the entrance of the village that announced its name and included a fossil.

One of the fossils found in Barrow is an ammonite called Waehneroceras prometheus, which is now housed at the British Geological Survey in nearby Nottingham. It is a scaled up version of that which has been carved by Andy Smith in a 2tonne block of the local Ancaster weatherbed stone. He has used the two tone colouring of the stone to make it look as though the fossil was actually in the stone.

It could not have been a real fossil, though, because Waehnerceras prometheus did not grow to be anything like this size. The fossil itself is only a few centimetres across.

The video below shows the sculpture being installed. At the end of it is a picture of Andy Smith with Sue Rodgers, chair of the Barrow on Soar Parish Council Committee that raised the money to pay for the sculpture and oversaw the project, and Wendy Woodhouse, the Chair of the Council.