MISCHIEVOUS RATS RAISE £160,000 FOR THE DAISY APPEAL!

A Mischief of Rats came to a splendid finale on Saturday 20th September when 23 Rat Sculptures were auctioned by Willian Baitson Auctioneers at the Princes Quay Event Space in Hull. Together with the sales of 22 sculptures to their sponsors, £160,000 was raised to assist the vital work of the Daisy Appeal. We’d like to thank all our rat buyers for their generous support.

Some of the Rat Sculptures will be going to private locations but several will be going back on public display. We will be announcing which of these Mischievous Rats can be seen across the area as soon as we have all the information back from our sponsors and auction buyers.

Look out for this information on our social media and on this website during November.

Why Rats?

2025 really was the Year of the Rat in Hull and East Yorkshire (apologies to the Chinese Horoscope) as a unique parade of 45 beautiful, artist decorated giant Rat Sculptures created a Pied Piper ripple of excitement across the area!

The story behind A Mischief of Rats was a very special one with a poignant link to the work of our chosen charity, Daisy Appeal, a charity which provides life-saving technology to support people living with cancer, heart disease and dementia.

Inspiration came from Hull band, The Rats, who were prominent on the local music scene and beyond in the late 60s and early 70s. Lead guitarist Mick Ronson, bassist Trevor Bolder and drummer Woody Woodmansey went on to form David Bowie’s ‘Spiders from Mars’.

Sadly both Mick and Trevor died of cancer, and so it is fitting that a charity focussing on the early diagnosis of cancers, heart disease and dementia should benefit from this project.

Rat Designs

We invited artists to respond to a number of themes when considering the designs to submit.

Mick Ronson, The Rats and the Hull and East Yorkshire music scene
Health and medical science
Rats in literature, films and TV
Rats, ships and the sea
Rats made beautiful!

Our designer and sculptor worked hard to create a rat that we think was cute and full of character, whilst retaining its essential rattiness. It certainly provided an unusual canvas for our artists to work their magic on!

We are immensely proud of our Mischief of Rats and we hope that you enjoyed them all! If you missed them, you can see them all in the Rat Gallery.