By ‘Hammy the Haddock’ to keep the beach clean in Buster’s memory
A giant metal haddock has landed in Cleethorpes – and been named in tribute to a beach safety legend.
The hand-made 300kg stainless-steel fish sculpture is a giant recycling bin for plastic bottles and can be found on Central Promenade, near the lifeboat station.
North East Lincolnshire Council teamed up with Grimsby’s Blackrow Engineering and several other sponsors to bring it to the resort.
More than 80 children entered a competition to name the new fish, with the winner 11-year-old Lilly-Mai Halligan, from Grimsby, with her suggestion of ‘Hammy the Haddock’.
Lilly-Mai named the fish after her uncle, Bernard ‘Buster’ Hammond (hence Hammy), who died in January. He was a well-known figure in the resort and part of the beach safety team for more than 30 years.
Lilly-Mai said: “My mum told me and my two sisters about the competition and we discussed what we would name the fish.
“We came up with Hammy as every time we think of Cleethorpes, we think of uncle Buster and it will be nice to have something to remember all the work he did.
“He loved the beach so it will be nice to know he will be remembered for keeping the beach safe and now Hammy will help keep it clean and carry on his memory.”
The fish is 4m long, roughly 1.2m wide and 1.7m tall.
Ben Tiffney, operations director at Blackrow Engineering, said: “More than 450 hours have gone into the making of the fish. Most of the fabrication and manufacture of the fish has been carried out by one of our skilled tradesmen Logan Marklew, with aid from one of our budding apprentices Ryan Meggit.
“Because of the nature of the task, the design process was carried out in a totally different manner to how we would normally approach a job. First, our contracts engineer, Darren Jaines, hand sketched some concepts of how we were to build the ‘framework’ of the fish. This was then transposed into making a scaled model, for us to be confident of getting the shape right. We then scaled this concept up.
“We laser-cut oval-shaped supports attached to a formed pipe that ran through the centre of the fish. Once these supports were tied together with round bar, the central formed pipe which created its shape was then cut away as the body had its own strength, creating a hollow fish.
“We then added the scales to the body, formed from round bar, and through trial and error we then created the fish’s face and head section, and cladded this with shaped round bar. The fins were laser cut and the eyes were machined and added, and once we were happy with the fish’s overall height and position, we designed, laser cut and fabricated its mounting frame.
“The fish was then hand-polished to create a smooth finish to help it survive the elements and also give the wow factor!”
