Image courtesy of Pentaco
Thousands of years ago they roamed the Norfolk coast – now for just 11 weeks you can meet a mammoth in Great Yarmouth market!
Visitors to the town’s new six-day covered market will be greeted by a giant Steppe Mammoth sculpture called Yuuki from Monday 27 June, as part of the Break charity’s GoGoDiscover event.
The colourful creature has been sponsored by Norfolk firm Pentaco Construction, the lead building firm on the market project.
The installation is also being backed by Great Yarmouth Borough Council, which operates the market, and stall owners, who are offering a special discount to people taking part in Break’s GoGoDiscover trail.
People using the GoGoDiscover app on their phones, available for £1.79 on the Google Play or Apple Store, will be able to claim a 5% discount at participating market stalls after ‘collecting’ the sculpture on the app. This works by entering a code found on the mammoth’s plinth.
Yuuki has been designed and painted by tutor and artist Rachael Butler. The intricate artwork focuses on our impact on the environment.
Yuuki is named after the Japanese word for courage. The stunning sculpture presents two worlds: one sad and polluted, and the other more positive and sustainable. There are many ways of looking after our Earth and its land and creatures, with wind farms, solar panels, recycling, litter picking and tree planting serving as just a few examples. Yuuki reminds us of environment and the importance of sharing this beautiful world.
The sculpture sits on a wooden plinth created by the carpentry team who worked on the Great Yarmouth market project. The team have donated their own time to create the plinth and those for 23 similar sculptures, with Pentaco donating the materials.
Yuuki is part of the wider Break GoGoDiscover trail, which features 55 large T.rex dinosaurs in Norwich, 24 Steppe Mammoths across the Norfolk, and a 100 smaller Breakasaurus sculptures designed by schools and community groups.
Pentaco is also sponsoring a T.rex sculpture that sited near Pulls Ferry in Norwich. The company is organising a ‘mammoth cycle-ride’ between the two sites in Great Yarmouth and Norwich on 10 July to raise further cash for Break. The sponsored journey follows on from previous fundraising sleep out and fire walk events.
The GoGoDiscover sculptures will be in place until September 10, before being sold at auction at Norwich Cathedral on 28 September 2022.
Through donations, app downloads, events, merchandise sales and an auction of sculptures in September, the trail is aimed at raising vital funds to stamp out the mammoth expectations placed on young adults when they leave care.
Pentaco managing director Gavin Napper said: “We are delighted to be supporting Break by sponsoring these two fantastic sculptures. It is particularly exciting to see the mammoth coming to Great Yarmouth market – I’m sure it will be a big hit with residents and visitors alike.”
Peter Marron, GoGoDiscover Project Manager said: “We are so excited to be bringing sculptures back to every corner of our great county and look forward to seeing the buzz this fantastic Steppe Mammoth sculpture will bring to Great Yarmouth market. The sculptures have a serious job to do as well – every penny raised will benefit the young adults we work with, making sure that they have someone standing alongside them in whatever challenges they face.”
A Great Yarmouth Borough Council spokesperson said: “It is great to be able to work with Pentaco to bring the popular Break sculpture trail back to Great Yarmouth, and to showcase it in the impressive new market building. The new more spacious, more accessible market gives us the chance to do things that just wouldn’t have been possible before.”
Businesses and would-be entrepreneurs around Great Yarmouth now have easy access to free business support and advice thanks to the launch of an exciting new Enterprise Hub.Great Yarmouth Borough Council has teamed up with the Town Centre Partnership to launch the service in Market Gates Shopping Centre.
The Hub is a new one stop shop for start-up, new and more established businesses and offers business advice, support, and training. Businesses can also book the space for their own business events.
The opening times are 10am – 4pm on, Monday to Friday. His Worship the Mayor, Cllr Graham Plant, officially opened the Enterprise Hub with a ribbon cutting on Wednesday 10, August at 11am, which was followed by refreshments and networking.
An innovative campaign to reduce plastics left on local beaches has launched today, with the aim of highlighting the importance of disposing of waste correctly.
Three new permanent #BottleShipsGY art installations have been installed in Great Yarmouth, Hemsby and Gorleston aimed at encouraging beachgoers to dispose of their plastic drinks bottles correctly, preventing them from entering the sea.
Each ship has been designed by artists Hatty + Young and has been inspired by vessels that form part of our proud maritime history, featuring plaques with historic information on each ship. Great Yarmouth Jetty saw the arrival of HMS Elephant, the Lydia Eva landed in Gorleston and Hemsby pays homage to its lifeboat, Sea Weaver. The BottleShips will fill with plastic bottles which will be collected for recycling.
Members of the public have been able to try out Great Yarmouth's new £26m swimming and sports centre for the first time today.
The new Marina Centre on Great Yarmouth's seafront Golden Mile, boasts a six-lane swimming pool, learner pool and leisure water with flumes; along with a 120-station gym, four court sports hall, 10m indoor climbing zone, three studios, and community spaces.
Many of the facilities feature stunning panoramic views of Great Yarmouth beach, with a central atrium and café linking the promenade to the beach.
The centre opened to the public on Friday 5th August, following a ribbon cutting ceremony led by Great Yarmouth mayor Cllr Graham Plant.
Mayor of Great Yarmouth, Cllr Graham Plant, has buried a time capsule full of memories relating to the last few years at Great Yarmouth’s new £26m swimming, sports, and leisure centre.
Back in 2021, the council invited members of the community to share their ideas on what they think should be included in a time capsule to be buried under the performance area in the new Marina Centre.
Items which will be buried in the capsule include events on a national such as Coronavirus updates, the Queen’s Jubilee and the 2021 census. There is also local news such as the media coverage for Visit Great Yarmouth Wheels Festival 2022, photos of the Marina Centre from the past, present and artists impressions and a photo of the current Mayor and Mayoress of Great Yarmouth, Cllr Plant, and his wife.
Plans to regenerate a riverside gateway site in Great Yarmouth are expected to take an important step forward next week with a move to compulsorily purchase parts of the site.
Great Yarmouth Borough Council has been working on proposals to transform the North Quay area into an exciting new waterfront quarter, turning the eyesore area into an attractive entrance to the town.
The four hectares of land is currently in piecemeal ownership and negotiations to bring the land together have been slow.
Now the council is proposing to use compulsory purchase powers to buy up the land so that its masterplan for the site can be made a reality.