My Top 10 Herd of Sheffield Elephants (the Top 5)

Sheffield’s largest public art event The Herd of Sheffield is coming to a close. The elephant sculptures that took part will soon be auctioned off to raise money for The Children’s Hospital Charity. Yesterday I started to share my top 10 elephants of the trail starting with numbers 10 through 6. Now it is time for my top 5.

#5 – Henry the Constructor

Henry the Constructor was one of two elephants created by Deven Bhurke, the other being The Warrior. I just loved the design of Henry with his high-vis jacket, helmet and boots. It’s just a really fun contribution that put a smile on my face and seemingly many others who found him in the Botanical Gardens.

#4 – Heard Sheffield?

Many of the elephants celebrated the city’s industrial heritage, but Sheffield has also made some pretty big contributions to the British music scene over the years. So it was great to see these celebrated by West Midland’s based graffiti artist Temper on his Heard Sheffield? elephant. His design featured photo realistic portraits of the many Sheffield musicians and seemed to draw a lot of interest from passes by.

#3 – Ellie

In third place I’ve put David Elliot Hoodith’s Ellie that could be found on Devonshire Green. I love the design of this bouldering themed elephant. With Sheffield becoming known as the Outdoor City this was a fitting contribution to the herd; and I loved the detail on the elephant’s feet of Sheffield landmarks like the Crucible, Arts Tower and Winter Gardens.

#2 – Marjorie

My second favourite goes to Pete McKee’s Marjorie. I’ve been a fan of Pete’s artwork for a while and had been looking forward to discovering what his contribution to the Herd of Sheffield would be. He didn’t disappoint with this design acknowledging the hardworking parents of our city.

It was also a tribute to his late mother and mother-in-law who shared the name Marjorie.

#1 – Hendophant

My absolute favourite elephant was one I found early on in the summer and has remained a favourite. Judging by what I’ve seen on social media it is also the favourite of many others. So the number one spot goes to Matt Cockayne’s Hendophant. Matt is perhaps more familiarly known as Goo Design and contributed a couple of sculptures to the herd. His Lingo the Elephant was also excellent.

I loved Hendophant because of its striking design celebrating a much loved icon of the city: Henderson’s Relish. The elephant looked vibrant in the iconic orange-and-black of the sauce’s packaging and sported the words “Reyt good on owt”, proper Sheffield. Brilliant!

So that completes my top 10 elephants. Don’t forget that the reason behind this art event has been to raise awareness and money for The Children’s Hospital Charity here in Sheffield. Please, if you can, donate some money to this excellent charity.

A big thanks to everyone involved in the Herd of Sheffield; including Wild in Art and all the artists involved. Also thanks to the schools and schoolchildren who participated in the Little Herd most of which can also be found on this site’s Herd of Sheffield section (although sadly we didn’t get chance to find them all).

Finally thanks to Lizzie the elephant, the inspiration behind the Herd of Sheffield. She toiled week after week through the streets of Sheffield during the First World War to ensure that the steel industry kept going; carting heavy steel and machinery across our great city and playing an important part in the war efforts. May she never be forgotten!