Description

Spirit has been created by artist Jess Perrin. His penguin suit features 40 hearts representing each of the hospice’s years of service. Other symbols include; on his coat mean:

373 stars represent patients cared for by our hospice at home team last year
247 diamonds represent the patients cared for on our In-patient Unit last year
282 circles represent those individuals supported with physiotherapy last year
138 moons represent the occupational therapy assessments we carried out last year
17 triangles represent in-patient hospice beds.

Audio read by: Elliott Webb from BBC Hereford and Worcester

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Artist

Jess Perrin

Jess is an illustrator and designer living and working in Birmingham. Jess loves to create both traditional and digital work that has a strong narrative style. Her love for character design can be seen throughout her work. Jess has painted 75 sculptures for Wild in Art since 2017, with a selection of her sculptures selling for over £200,000 for various charities.

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Sponsor

Worcester BID

Location

02. Crowngate Shopping centre (Friary Walk)

In the medieval period, this location would have looked extremely different. Instead of the glass and steel doors leading in to Crowngate Bus Station, you’d have seen a small gateway, beyond which an alleyway led to the heart of a community of monks.

At one time the land beneath the bus station formed the highest plot in the city centre and was known as ‘Belassis’ (meaning ‘finely situated’). In 1347 the land was granted by the powerful Lord William Beauchamp to an order of Dominican Monks who wished to settle here.

More about this location

02. Crowngate Shopping centre (Friary Walk)

Monks of the Dominican order wore black habits, hence they were known as the ‘Blackfriars’. They would have gone out regularly to preach amongst Worcester’s population and the Friary served as a place of education.
The monastery was dissolved in 1538 and all the buildings were pulled down. The remains of most of the community lies beneath the modern bus station, but the passageway that you see today follows the same route as the original medieval entrance and is still called Friary Walk.

This location fact has been provided by Joe Tierney of Faithful History. To learn more stories of the ancient city of Worcester, spanning thousands of years of history in ‘The Faithful City’, visit https://www.facebook.com/faithfulhistoryworcester

Take home your own feathered friend

In October 2024 all 40 large penguins and one chick will be auctioned to raise funds for the care provided by St Richard’s Hospice.

In 2021, 31 stunning elephant sculptures raised a mammoth £368,800 to support the care provided by St Richard’s Hospice across Worcestershire.

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