THE glowering face of Alfred Hitchcock loomed menacingly over drivers from the back of a lorry yesterday.

The 18-tonne solid steel mask of the Master of Suspense was slowly driven the length of the country, beginning its journey at first light.

The £500,000 artwork, by Antony Donaldson, was designed in London and forged in a County Durham steel foundry.

It will form the centrepiece of an exclusive residential development on the site of Gainsborough Studios, Islington, north London, where Hitchcock made some of his greatest films.

The imposing sculpture, made from corrosion-resisting steel, is four metres high, five metres wide and three metres deep. It will be sited outside the former studios, now converted into apartments.

The London Borough of Hackney insisted the developers create a piece of public art which retained a link with the film industry.

Gainsborough Studios brought in 63-year-old Donaldson to come up with a fitting project.

The artist, the father of film director Lee Donaldson, made a full-size fibreglass pattern in his London studio and had it transported to the North-East.

Workers at Bond's Foundry, Tow Law, which employs 85 staff, set about completing the task.

The result is an enormous theatre mask, entitled Master of Suspense, which is unmistakable as the cinema legend.

Mr Donaldson said: "I had to find a foundry which was prepared to go out on a limb and take a risk with something new and very unusual.

"Bond's have done a really wonderful job. It is everything I had hoped it would be when I first imagined it."

The piece was then moved to the doomed Weardale Steel plant, in nearby Wolsingham, for shotblasting - the last job to be performed there before closure.

The finished mask was winched on to a low-loader to be transported to London during an eight-hour, 300-mile journey.

Stephen Friel, a director of Gainsborough Studios, said: "We are very pleased with the artwork - it is a fantastic tribute to a great director."

John Blackett, of Bond's Foundry, said: "It is one of the most unusual things we have ever taken on.

"The end result was very impressive, and it was quite something to see it loaded on to the lorry and driven away towards the A1."

London-born Hitchcock, who died in 1980, shot several films at Gainsborough Studios, the most famous of which was The Lady Vanishes.

At the age of 38, he left Britain for Hollywood, where he made his masterpieces The Birds, Psycho and Rear Window.