Born in Peterborough, Roy Kitchin spent part of the Second World War as a Bevin Boy (a boy conscripted to work in the coal mines), before serving in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.
Using the skills he’d learned there, he turned his hand to sculpture under the tutelage of William Bloye, making large scale works from steel and iron. Kitchin became a successful artist (working primarily with steel), a lecturer at Newcastle University, had solo exhibitions at places such as Yorkshire Sculpture Park and the Hatton Gallery, and – with Pam Brown – founded the Ironbridge Open Air Museum of Steel Sculpture.
There were two attempts to place a Roy Kitchin piece in the heart of Middlesbrough during the 1980s. Initially, this smaller metal sculpture was planned for the brick plinths on the newly-renovated part of Linthorpe Road behind the Cleveland Centre, but Graham Ibbeson’s Shopper & Child and Gardener Tending Flowers ended up being chosen instead.
The sculpture was one of a series made by Kitchin in the early 1980s, many of which ended up in the grounds of the Ironbridge Museum.
The museum closed in 2018 but many of the works can now be found at the British Ironwork Centre in Oswestry.
One Roy Kitchin piece that did make it onto the streets of Middlesbrough was his Mechanical Arch (1983).
Commissioned by Cleveland County Council and Northern Arts for the new Cleveland Gallery, the arch was made of steel donated by British Steel and was designed to symbolise the area’s steel and engineering history, with the tubes joining the structure representing Teesside’s rolling mills.
However, as an almost identical piece can be found at the British Ironwork Centre, it’s not entirely clear whether this was indeed a bespoke piece.
Mechanical Arch cost £8,000, £5,500 of which came from Cleveland County Council, £1,400 from Northern Arts and the rest along with materials from British Steel.1 You can find the arch alongside other sculptures on Victoria Road, Middlesbrough (outside the Victoria Building).
Thank you to Tony Duggan (as ever) for his time and insights.
North East Statues 
The ‘Mechanical Arch’ at Ironbridge Museum was under construction in his university studio when he was visited by the man from Middlesborough who expressed great interest in acquiring it. On being told it was destined for an exhibition Kitchen agreed to make a 2nd Mechanical Arch for Middlesborough. It was the same except for having a small ‘lintel’ at the top and being coloured the exact same blue as the Middlesborough Transporter Bridge.
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I had no idea – brilliant!
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I know a lot about Roy Kitchin. We were together from me at 18 to his death in 1997. Infact I helped him erect the Middlesborough ‘Mechanical Arch’ and the red oxide one at Margam Park in Wales. Now I going to be a be cheeky and suggest you acquire my 1st novel ‘Rust Never Sleeps’ – it is largely self biographical so Roy figures large in it. If you just put in the title followed by my name – Pam Brown – in your search engine several pop up. (I designed the cover)
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I’ll update the article to reflect all this new info. Thank you very much Pam!
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