The Beginnings

Before the Knife Angel was even a concept, we first recognized the struggles that all 43 police constabularies were having with knife and sharp weapon crime, and the lack of assistance and support for this. Police forces were paying for knife banks themselves, and these were not cheap.

We knew that with our skills and expertise, we could help. Our Chairman, Clive Knowles, approached the Home Office and explained how we could provide personalised knife banks completely free of charge, and initially installed free of charge, to all police constabularies nationwide.

From the get-go, we were saving approximately £5million in the National purse and tax-payers money. Each force that got in touch to request knife banks had organised knife amnesties and surrenders in their region.

We ensured that all knife banks were personalised with signwriting, but these were not just personalised for the police forces and locations, but also with names of community groups such as neighbourhood watches and traffic police. We wanted every community to be able to take ownership of the amnesties and to be involved in the whole process.

Supplying Knife Banks

Each knife bank was padlocked and chained and made of robust steel to ensure that they were completely secure for placement in areas such as city centres. By taking on most of the logistics ourselves, we were ensuring we were enabling the police forces to carry out further amnesties and weapon surrenders all year round – not just during the annual amnesty weeks that were originally held nationwide.

In total over 200 knife banks were created here in our workshops, all at our own cost. We understood that funding cuts were one of the main reasons police forces just couldn’t afford to create knife banks to carry out successful amnesties, with some knife banks even costing over £4,000 to create.

Once the police force had completed the knife amnesty, we would organise a collection from each force to return the weapons back here to Shropshire. This was an important process, West Mercia Police even organising a police escort to ensure the knives and weapons arrived on site safely. Upon arrival, artist Alfie Bradley would work through the collection of knives and weapons, very carefully, to determine what he had to work with. Each blade was blunted and sterilised before he could contemplate working with them. A number of weapons received were still in evidence packaging and some even included traces of blood.

Over 250,000 Knives Removed from the Streets for the Angel

We put out a nationwide call for the knives that the country was collecting through our knife banks. We knew that we needed 100,000 for the Knife Angel, but through the combined national effort we found that police constabularies were collecting far more weapons than this! We took each and every knife off the police forces from their amenities and recycled all excess weapons over the 100,000 that we needed. We collected knives from the constabularies free of charge, and in the end recycled around a quarter of a million blades!

The Making of the Angel

We employed sculptor Alfie Bradley to help bring the Angel to life. Alfie began by creating a structure to form the basic shape of the Angel. Steel sheeting was the most suitable material for this to aid the formation of the organic shape, as well as enabling Alfie to weld each individual knife, blade facing outwards, to the Sculpture.

Alfie then began the task of welding each blade to the Angel. The variety of knives and weapons the police forces had collected was astounding. From standard kitchen knives and flick pocket knives through to Samurai swords, knuckle dusters and martial arts weapons. What was alarming was we even came across homemade weapons.

The building of the body was a lengthy process, and Alfie was working at developing the Angel’s face and hands whilst paying close attention to the expression the face formed. It was crucial for him to get the emotion across in the facial expression, almost as if the Angel is asking….Why?

Alfie took inspiration from family photographs and his own facial expressions to ensure the Angel expressed the right emotion and the right message.

The Sculpture then began to take shape, Alfie moving onto the most focal point of the angel, its wings. Each blade’s handle was removed and place on the wings to give a featherlike appearance.

Some of the blades used to create the wings are inscribed with the names of lost loved ones of the 80 or so families who have supported the project. They were often messages of loss and love to those who have tragically died from a knife attack or injury. Other blades were inscribed with messages of disbelief at how bad knife crime is in this country. Some blades were event inscribed with messages of forgiveness and regret from ex-offenders who have since learnt the errors of their ways and now strive to work against knife crime.

The construction took just over 2 years to create with support from police forces, visiting to see the work taking place. The support from families affected by knife crime engraving messages onto the blades, plus the support from anti-knife crime charities and ex-gang members who are educating the youth of today in why it’s wrong to carry a knife, all played a part in the creation of this magnificent Monument against Violence and Aggression.