A monument to Wakefield's finest

She was the daughter of the county surveyor who grew up in a respectable red-brick semi in one of Wakefield's smarter suburbs and went on to become one of the 20th century's most important artists.

A stalwart of the modernist movement, she was also an icon of the left, revered as a feminist survivor of two doomed marriages to powerful men. And she was a mother of four.

Today, Barbara Hepworth's birthplace is putting the finishing touches to a £35m monument to its most illustrious daughter, which it hopes will cement not only the sculptor's place in history but also spark a revival in the fortunes of the city itself.

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