Devizes sculptor Judy Boyt was lionised at the opening of a new shopping centre in Morpeth, Northumbria, last week, after her lifesize sculpture of a bull was unveiled by actress Joanna Lumley.

The fibreglass statue now has pride of place on the canopy over the entrance to the centre.

Ms Boyt, 55, completed the clay original at her studio at her home in Easterton Sands, and the days leading up to its unveiling were a constant source of anxiety.

She said: “There were a few heart-stopping moments in my sleep and my waking thoughts were, would the footprint of the bull match the footprint of the canopy he was to be put on? Will he be big enough?”

All doubts were dispelled after Ms Boyt travelled up to Morpeth for the grand opening last week. She received a public thank you from the centre’s managing director Mark Dransfield and a huge bottle of Bollinger champagne from Absolutely Fabulous star Miss Lumley.

But it was the praise from those who know their bulls that meant most to Ms Boyt. Many comments were made about the animal’s reproductive organs, which she had tried to make totally lifelike.

She said: “Then several farmers came up to me and congratulated me on getting them absolutely right! A group of ladies couldn’t get over that a woman had made something like this.

“One lady said, did you make it or did you design it and someone else make it? I said, no, I made it. She said, but you’re dressed so smart and you are not very big!”