Ronald Pope's Legacy is Celebrated in Secret Sculpture Garden
By Clare Limb
August 2026
A couple of years ago, Crich residents and Transition Crich Members Jane and Tony Hubbard invited members of the group to their home to see and hear about the work of the late artist and sculptor Ronald Pope, who was Jane’s father.
A few of us went along not knowing much about Ronald Pope and came away very moved and inspired by what we saw and heard about the man.
The story goes that Jane, and her brother were brought up in the family home in Melbourne, South Derbyshire, which is where their father worked as a sculptor. Pope had been an engineer at Rolls Royce before deciding to pursue a career as an artist by going to The Slade in London. Here he met sculptors such as Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore.
Pope worked in a range of mediums including stone, wood and metal. Many of his works were commissions for public buildings such as schools & churches, but he also did private commissions for businesses and collections, this included ‘Duo’ for Lady Paget at Kings Newton Hall (now in the University of Derby building at Kedleston Road).
Jane and Tony were trying to raise awareness of Pope’s work, and I had an idea that would start to develop over the coming months.
Tony, Jane & Clare
Artist Ronald Pope
I was working with Creative Melbourne at the time, and I spoke to the Director of Melbourne Festival, Sharon Brown, about what I had seen and heard at Jane and Tony’s. Sharon was very keen to know more about Pope’s work as he was local to Melbourne, many people knew him and even had pieces of his work in their homes and she had already been thinking about doing a project related to Ronald Pope.
I arrangef a meeting between Sharon, myself and Jane and Tony which went well. It was clear that there were themes in Pope’s work that were universal, such as his interest in Humanity and Nature.
Sharon then arranged for a small exhibition of Pope’s work to be shown at Melbourne Hall during the Melbourne Festival. This was hugely successful and Jane was able to have several conversations with people who had known her father (as well as her mother, who had been a teacher at the local school).
This exhibition led on to Sharon and I creating a much larger project inspired by Pope’s life and work called Humanity, Nature and Creativity, for which we sought funding from Arts Council England’s National Lottery Project Grants programme and in March 2026 we found out that we had been successful in obtaining the funds to do a major project in and around, and with the community of Melbourne.
The project commenced in April with a retrospective exhibition of Pope’s work in Creative Melbourne Gallery and was followed by a series of 25 creative community workshops inspired by his work. Some of these workshops were dedicated to making work that would go into the Secret Sculpture Garden, which was going to be cited in the gardens of Melbourne Hall and after several workshops – led by Artist Nita Rao and supported by Jemma Bagley - the community had made 4 willow pillars and lots of clay tree people!
In addition to this, there was a major commission which went to fused glass artist Stevie Davies (whose studio is in Wirksworth). Stevie’s design was called Shared Lines and depicts three abstracted figures inspire by Pope’s sketches and sculptures. The sculpture was made in partnership with Acres Engineering and the fused glass panels were made in a workshop with volunteers from Creative Melbourne Gallery.
The rest of the Secret Sculpture Garden was made up of pieces by sculptors from the region and is designed to raise their profile as well as sculpture as a medium.
Should you visit Melbourne, you may wish to see two sculptures by Ronald Pope in Melbourne Church (near the Hall). One is named Man and Woman and is situated in the Lady Chapel, commissioned privately in 1963, and donated to the Church in 2014. The other sculpture, a cross in steel, which is in the nave, dates from 1965.
Jane and Tony have set up a website, where most of Pope’s work can be seen, including the Melbourne Church sculptures. His work can also be seen on the ArtUK website.
If you would like to see sketch books, pottery, water colour paintings, poetry and sculpture by Pope, please contact Jane or Tony, who will be happy to show you their 'Pope collection'.
The Secret Sculpture Garden it is open to the public every afternoon Tuesday – Saturday throughout September, ending on 20th September. Entrance is via Melbourne Hall Gardens entrance at the visitor centre. The £10.00 Admission includes a ticket to see the whole garden, which is well worth a visit!
