West Swindon Sculpture walk Archives

The Watchers Are Restored

Sep 23, 2020 | Arts/Culture/Heritage, Public art-sculpture, West Swindon Sculpture walk

The Watchers restored.

Among the doom and gloom of Covid and Brexit and town centre shop closures there’s some good local news in the restoration of The Watchers.

The Watchers form part of the West Swindon sculpture walk. These sculptures are a culturally significant part of the West Swindon landscape, installed in the late 1970s/early 1980s. Roger Ogle has done much to champion them – then much than him – later so have I. Despite the fact that they’ve been shamefully neglected by our town’s leaders for decades now, they remain things of enjoyment and an untapped resource I’m sure. If the powers that be did but know it.

White Horse Pacified rides again

Jun 20, 2016 | Arts/Culture/Heritage, West Swindon Sculpture walk

20th June 2016 White Horse Pacified rides again Well listeners. This is a bit exciting and no mistake. This week I got a message via the blog from a lady called Julie Livsey - the creator of 'White Horse Pacified' - part of the West Swindon Sculpture trail. So this...

A West Swindon Sculpture Trail Travelogue

May 24, 2014 | Arts/Culture/Heritage, Public art-sculpture, West Swindon Sculpture walk

I’ve written about the West Swindon sculpture trail in several different ways in this blog. This West Swindon Sculpture Trail Travelogue though is a bit different. It’s a more literary piece that I wrote as a piece of coursework for a trave lwriting module I took as part of my degree level English studies.

WSSW Part 6: The Watchers at Toothill

Aug 7, 2013 | Arts/Culture/Heritage, Public art-sculpture, Walks and cycle paths, West Swindon Sculpture walk

At the end of part 5 of this series, Kim and I had reached Nexus at Freshbrook, at which point we called it a day as we were ready for dinner. We’d been out for hours and had a great time but had still only visited 5 out of the 7 sculptures itemised on the tour.

WSSW Part 5: Nexus at Freshbrook

Jul 30, 2013 | Arts/Culture/Heritage, General Interest, Public art-sculpture, Walks and cycle paths, West Swindon Sculpture walk

In part 4 of this series my companion and myself visited ‘Hey Diddle Diddle’ which is in The Prinnels, West Swindon. Now we move onto WSSW Part 5: Nexus at Freshbrook.

I explained about spending the last twenty years seeing but not really ‘noticing’ that sculpture from the bus and never realising the significance of it – which is a bit shameful when you think of it. Well I’m sorry to say that my chagrin doesn’t end there. Oh dear me no! The situation with this next one is very similar I’m sorry to say. Even as my friend and I were reading the ‘bumph’ about this sculpture I still wasn’t making the connection – and ‘connection’ is actually very apposite indeed. It was only as we approached Freshbrook that I realized what we were going to. Doh!

WSSW Part 4: Hey Diddle Diddle

Jul 23, 2013 | Arts/Culture/Heritage, Public art-sculpture, Walks and cycle paths, West Swindon Sculpture walk

Leaving behind White Horse Pacified to move onto WSSW: Part 4 – Hey Diddle Diddle. This took Kim and I around some bits of what I term ‘proper’ places. By that I mean houses and areas that have clearly been here much longer than all this ‘new’ (70s, 80s 90s) development of Swindon.

WSSW Part 3: White Horse Pacified

Jul 11, 2013 | Arts/Culture/Heritage, General Interest, Public art-sculpture, Walks and cycle paths, West Swindon Sculpture walk

Welcome to part 3 in a series (I’m not sure how many the series will consist of cos I’m making it up as I go along) about the West Swindon sculpture walk – in which we encounter White Horse Pacified.

WSSW Part 2: How the Mighty Fall

Jun 24, 2013 | Arts/Culture/Heritage, General Interest, Public art-sculpture, Walks and cycle paths, West Swindon Sculpture walk

In the first post of this series I wrote about the statue of Diana Dors outside the cinema at Shaw Ridge. The next statue my friend and I examined on the walk was ‘How the Mighty Fall’.

Like all the sculptures on this trail it was installed in the mid-late 1980s when the area was being developed.

WSSW Part 1: Diana Dors Film Star

Jun 20, 2013 | Arts/Culture/Heritage, Public art-sculpture, Sons & Daughters of Swindon, West Swindon Sculpture walk

Right then, hands up. Who knew there was such an entity as the West Swindon sculpture walk? No? Me neither.

I only discovered it when rooting about the interweb for info for this blog. In the course of my research I came across this information and map of the trail. How interesting I thought. And how cool it would be to do the walk and see how many of them still exist and write about it. So this is WSC Part 1: Diana Dors.

WSSW Part 7: Looking to the Future

May 27, 2013 | Arts/Culture/Heritage, Public art-sculpture, West Swindon Sculpture walk

Swindon is home to an assortment of statues and sculptures – WSSW Part 7: Looking to the Future one of them.

Not to everyone’s taste, arguments rage about whether the council should spend money on such things when services are always crying out for funding. It was ever thus.

The Watchers Are Restored

White Horse Pacified rides again

A West Swindon Sculpture Trail Travelogue

WSSW Part 6: The Watchers at Toothill

WSSW Part 5: Nexus at Freshbrook

WSSW Part 4: Hey Diddle Diddle

WSSW Part 3: White Horse Pacified

WSSW Part 2: How the Mighty Fall

WSSW Part 1: Diana Dors Film Star

WSSW Part 7: Looking to the Future

West Swindon – What the eye doesn’t see

Swindon In 50 Buildings

Swindon – A Born Again Swindonian’s Guide

Dona Bradley Architectural Illustrator

We Are Swindon