ART and design students at Halesowen College have been commissioned to create iconic artwork to brighten up a canal side in the town.

Their designs will adorn a stretch of about 300 yards of brickwork, a remnant of the Stewarts and Lloyds steel works, from Gosty Tunnel towards Hawne Basin.

The Coombeswood Canal Trust has invited the college to create the artwork as part of plans to commemorate next year’s 50th anniversary of the closure of the factory in in 1967.

Trust secretary Gill Reynolds said it was hoped to unveil the designs at the trust’s next open weekend in May 2017 which will be the focus of the celebration.

The trust is applying for Heritage Lottery funding of around £50,000 to fund the project, which will include story boards around the Hawne Basin explaining the history of the link between the canal and railway.

It is also hoped that about a dozen tug boats, now in private ownership, which were used to transport the steel tubes down the Dudley Number 2 Canal from the factory to the railway alongside the basin, will moor up there for the weekend.

More the 25 BTEC level three students will work on the two-year art project using a variety of materials such as steel and pottery and have already embarked on researching the history of the canal and industrial heritage.

College community participation director Elaine Cammies said: “This project is in its early stages but it is very exciting and something we are delighted to be involved with.

“It is a great experience for our students to put something back into the community and to be involved in a project like this.”