Get up close with the Harris Museum statues you cannot see properly from the ground

They have kept watch over Preston for 130 years from their home above the Harris Museum – but have you ever given them a second glance?

From their lofty position, more than a dozen figures from Ancient Greece appear in deep discussion and contemplation about equally lofty matters.

A perhaps unlikely Lancashire representation of the “School of Athens” mural that is painted in The Vatican, the statue family is visible enough from the ground - but it is only when you get within touching distance that you can appreciate the granular detail of their facial features.

That is a privilege afforded only to those experts who clean the sculptures every few decades - a process most recently completed as part of the ongoing facelift that is being given to the building.

>» Read more about the work involved in sprucing up the statues by clicking here.

Lancashire Post photographer Dan Martino scaled the heights of the scaffolding to see the handiwork of the renovators - and the sculptors whose creations they have brought back to their best.