WORK has started on the centrepiece statue of a new £30,000-plus project paying tribute to Greenock's most famous son.

A new sculpture - Breaking the Mould - is being created to commemorate the life and work of engineer and inventor James Watt.

The sculpture, created by artist Jason Orr, is the culmination of a wider project called Watt? which also includes a heritage trail and augmented reality app in honour of the great man.

The granite base was erected on Saturday and the sculptural relief erected and welded yesterday.

Its home will be the Watt Institution.

The augmented reality plaques/stands for the trail will be put in place by the end of the week in time for a website to go live on September 28.

The Watt? project has been developed by RIG Arts thanks to a £33,500 grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

It commemorates James Watt’s genius but also acknowledges both his family’s links to slavery and his personal opposition to it.

Watt once cancelled an order for one of his engines from a French company, based in Haiti, where slaves were fighting for their freedom.

Councillor Jim Clocherty said: “RIG Arts has come up with an amazing project which uses traditional and contemporary techniques to provide a ‘warts and all’ perspective on James Watt and his achievements.

“His impact on the world was enormous and it is right that we celebrate his achievements.

"But we must never forget that much of the wealth generated during the period was based on slavery.”

The sites of the Watt Heritage Trail are the Dutch Gable House and James Watt building on William Street in Greenock, the Watt Institution on Kelly Street and the Watt Memorial Cairn at Greenock Cemetery.

The project has already seen a comic book created, animations produced and a script written for a short play to showcase the story of Watt.

Karen Orr, chief executive of RIG Arts, said: "We used creative research to work with our community to interpret, record and share the history of James Watt and to acknowledge his importance locally, nationally and internationally.

“The project was created to support Inverclyde's celebration of James Watt’s bicentenary and has used creativity and technology to share heritage with a wider audience."

Watt is widely regarded as the father of the Industrial Revolution thanks to his work on condensers, making the steam engines of the day economically viable by improving their efficiency.