Elephants for this summer’s Herd In The City art trail have marched into Southend for their makeover.

The 44 large and 71 baby elephant sculptures were delivered to aerospace company Ipeco Holdings in Southend-on-Sea, where they will be stored until the artists, local schools, and groups begin the ‘tusk’ of decorating them later this month.

Volunteers from Herd In The City Partners and Sponsors, including Ipeco, Forrester Hyde, 6rs, Rickard Luckin, Green Light Print Solutions, Couno and Ayers & Cruiks, were on hand to help manoeuvre the elegant sculptures from the lorry to their temporary home inside Ipeco.

Rachel Hawksworth, Project Manager for Havens Hospices, said: “It’s exciting to see all the elephants arrive safe and sound, ready for the next stage of our free family art trail.

“We’ve had a sneak peek at the designs, and we can’t wait for the artists and Learning Programme schools and groups to start decorating these beautiful sculptures.”

The elephants will be dotted around the city from the middle of July to September, including Shoeburyness and Leigh-on-Sea, before being auctioned off to raise thousands of pounds for the free, specialist hospice care Havens Hospices provides for local adults, children, and their families.

Herd In The City is made possible thanks to Presenting Partner Southend-on-Sea City Council. The Official Event Partners are BTMK Solicitors, Method IT, Ayers & Cruiks and c2c, plus Rickard Luckin as the Learning Programme Partner, Atlantic Pacific as the Logistics Partner, Echo Newspaper as the Media Partner, Main Media as the Photography and Videography Partner, and 6rs as the Creative Partner, which has produced the brand for the project.

Keep up to date with the herd at www.herdinthe.city or follow herdinthe.city on Instagram and @herdinthecity on Twitter and Facebook.