Map 21 – Dortmund Square

The Downhearted Drayman

What does the statue of The Barrel Man, or Drayman, in Dortmund Square get up to at night? And why is he so sad?

The Barrel Man statue in Dortmund Square is well known to the people of Leeds. But fewer people know that the statue was a gift to the city from the people of Dortmund as a token of ‘peace and friendship’ between former enemies.

The Barrel Man statue in Dortmund, Germany; and children from Beechwood Primary with the twin statue in Dortmund Square, Leeds.
Photo by Matthew Bellwood.

Organised by local writer Peter Spafford, The Leeds/Dortmund 50 festival in 2019 celebrated the golden anniversary of the cities being twinned.

As part of the festival, Matthew was commissioned to work with a group of 10 children at Beechwood Primary School, East Leeds. Matthew spent three days with the children, walking around the city centre and creating a radio play/voice collage/audio narrative about the Barrel Man (whose actual title is The Drayman). The piece was recorded at Chapel FM and was aired for the first time at the LD50 festival at October 2019.

    • Some of the Leeds statues featured in the story. Photos by Matthew Bellwood.

    Thanks to grants from Leeds Community Foundation and Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, The Downhearted Drayman was also published as an illustrated book and launched during the festival. The text was printed in both English and German, thanks to a fabulous team of volunteer translators (mostly from Leeds University), and the illustrations were by the children themselves.

    Listen online

    You can hear the children performing the radio version of the story, and also listen to a programme about the book and the Leeds Dortmund Festival, here on the ChapelFM website »

    Read The Dortmund Drayman

    The Dortmund Drayman download »

    Project credits

    Storyteller and facilitator: Matthew Bellwood
    Writers: Esmee Brewitt, Bethany Dixon, Lawek Doski, Olivia Gaunt, Demi Jowett, Jay-Jay Mcnalus, Toby Moyles, Jayden Peel, Gracie Strangeway, Lucy Wardle
    Illustrators: Children of Beechwood Primary
    Translators: Lucy Bradbury, Oliver Lawrie, Anees Malik, Rosie Shackleton, Ricarda Zoellner, Fleur Speakman
    Translation editors: Helen Finch, Matthias Engels
    Design and colouring: Amy Levene

    The project was made possible thanks to funding from: Leeds 2023, Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, Leeds Community Foundation, The Leeds Fund and Beechwood Primary School.