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 post is White Horse Pacified Rides again!
Said Julie: “It was a lovely surprise to see the image of my sculpture The White Horse Pacified in your article about the Swindon Sculpture Trail. In 1987, when artist in residence for Thamesdown CC , the horse got commissioned. The poet Carol Ann Duffy was Poet in Residence the same year.
If you want any further information about the ins and out of this sculpture I‘m happy to answer your questions. With best wishes Julie Livsey”
Wasn’t that lovely? She also kindly scanned and sent across the leaflet about the sculpture. So here it is – straight from the horse’s mouth as it were…
Julie Livsey – The artistThe White Horse Pacified About Julie’s residencyArtist’s statement
In March 2018, Swindon Link Magazine wrote: ‘In early 1988 community artist Julie Livsey aimed to complete her large steel and concrete sculpture, White Horse Pacified, by mid-February.
But gale force winds and heavy rain played havoc with her efforts and the Mayor of Thamesdown Peter Owen and council leader Tony Mayer had to unveil the work under the cover of a large tent.
Julie said her work, funded by the Gulbenkian Foundation, represented the ancient ‘God Like’ horses cut into the landscape around Swindon …
… Although there have been a few attempts to clean the imposing landmark, and large willows which were saplings when the White Horse was unveiled were cut back in 2018, the work needs a major makeover, rediscovered and promoted as an important feature in Swindon’s cultural landscape … ‘
Yes! Amen to that. As do all the rest of the sculptures on the trail.
The ugliest town in England? Really? 2021: At the time of writing, this post Swindon was submitting a bid to the Heritage Lottery fund for a fancy-pants new building to house the Museum and Art gallery.
That bid failed – but that’s by the by. When the news emerged of Swindon’s designs on a new building, two broadsheet newspapers covered the story with quite the laziest, insulting and unnecessary journalism. What follows is my response to it at the time.
Swindon hits the headlines of the nationals – and yet again it’s an insult.
Beauty is only skin deep – and it lies in the eye of the beholder. You may have to dig but it’s there. Okay. There can’t be many of us by now that have missed the recent press coverage by The Telegraph and the Independent of Swindon’s bid to ‘become Britain’s new cultural magnet’ (The Telegraph.)
In covering this story they’ve managed to turn what should have been a positive story about the town’s impressive and unsung art collection into a damning portrait of an ugly and soulless town.
Yes – I KNOW that Swindon has destroyed some perfectly fine buildings. I don’t why – I wasn’t here then. I know too that there are areas that could be better in all sorts of ways. But – do we really think that this isn’t true throughout the country? Of course it is. But nevertheless, Swindon has a healthy heart of culture and creativity and it’s far, far from ugly.
Swindon has hit the headlines once again. And once again the media has dug deep into their hidden shallows to insult a town that many people love and choose to live in. Yes. CHOOSE.
I’m incandescent.
The Independent headlined what could and indeed should have been a positive story about Swindon’s art collection and proposed new art gallery and museum thus: ‘The “ugliest town in England” is getting a makeover’
A big claim – and an unfounded one
Ugliest town? That’s a big claim and a strong insult Independent. Just what yardstick have you used exactly? Why is it necessary to be so rude? I must be in the running to be Swindon’s number one fan but I’ll own that Swindon is dispiriting in places – the bottom end of the town is not exactly salubrious for a start.
However there’s a yawning great chasm between that and ‘ugly’. I hail from a part of the country left economically devastated by the 1980s pit closures. I know rough when I see it. And Swindon isn’t it.
A kickback
Some years ago I started this blog, in part, as a kick-back against this constant drip drip drip of attacks against the town. I’ve written hundreds of posts of positive stories about the cornucopia of art, culture, creativity and fantastic people that love to live and work and create in this ‘ugly’ town with no heart. Allegedly
What’s it got in the way of art?
The Independent posed the question of Swindon, ‘‘What’s it got in the way of art?’ Well dear Independent article writer, you already know that Swindon has one of the most important collections of 20th century British art outside the Tate. You also know we have a statue of Diana Dors.
But had you done a bit more research you might have discovered that Swindon is home to many pieces of public art scattered all over the town. Notably the wonderful and unsung West Swindon sculpture trail but many more besides. Read the blog – I’ve posted about much of it here.
Diana Dors West Swindon
Art for art’s sake
You might also have discovered that Swindon is home to not one but two world-class artists. Ken White famed for his murals and the Virgin Red Lady emblem (alongside a fabulous and renowned body of work centred around his experiences working in the railway works) and David Bent, aviation artist and artist in residence to the Red Arrows:
Ken White is Swindon born and bred and David Bent came to live here. Yes CHOSE to live in Swindon and play a full part in the life and heart of the community.
But the creativity doesn’t end there. There’s Artsite and the Post Modern, the literature festival and the poetry festival. And so, so much more.
Swindon Festival of Poetry
I’m so, so tired of all this carrying on as if Swindon were the only town in the land to have demolished good buildings and put in concrete. It’s not. Move on please.
‘Designed by Douglas Stephen and built in the Seventies, this tower is a sleek, slick return to the smooth white grace of Twenties and Thirties Modernism. It’s a mixed-use building, incorporating social housing, offices and retail, which is rare in Britain. Stephen was a communist and believed in architecture as a power for social good.”
But that aside, Swindon is a mostly a working-class town founded on industry so it’s hardly likely to be stuffed to the gills with Palladian columns and Georgian windows now is it? What’s wrong with being proud of the town’s fantastically rich industrial heritage that is so much broader and deeper than the GWR – albeit that’s the one that put Swindon on the map.
But you know what? Those that know – know. We know that Palladian columns don’t make a community. What does make a community is all of the things I’ve mentioned here and all the elements of Swindon life and people that I haven’t mentioned here because frankly it would take all day. But it’s all here on this blog.’
“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.” So said Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of children’s classic, The Secret Garden.
Well, be that as it may we can easily say that the whole of Swindon is a garden. Or a park or green space at any rate – given that here in Swindon we’re astonishingly well-blessed with leafy and open spaces. It’s quite astonishing when you stop to think about it. You can read about some more of them here:https://swindonian.me/category/parks-and-open-spaces/ But this post focuses on Queen’s Park in Swindon.
Queens Park sign
Queen’s Park Swindon
But this post is concerned with Queen’s Park Swindon and its secret garden. Swindon’s Queen’s Park is not a place I get to much. I live one the west side of town and have the magnificent Lydiard Park not much more than a spit from my house so I go there – obvs.
Which is not to say that Queen’s Park isn’t lovely because it is. It’a a fabulous oasis in the middle of an urban conurbation. And it has some public art in too. So what’s not to like?
Plus the secret garden of course. And it was the secret garden summer BBQ that took me there last night.
The Secret Garden volunteers organized the BBQ ,among them the Incredible Edible Swindon people and councillor Paul Dixon, and was a very pleasant evening. After a few days of not great weather the sun switched itself back on and produced a fabulous evening.
NB: the Secret garden once was operated by the group of keen volunteers aforementioned but that no longer applies. They’ve handed it over to South Swindon Parish now.
Below are a load of photos I took but before that some general information about the park.
Wikipededia says:
Dull but factual from Wikepedia:Queen’s Park is a public park, located near the Regent Circus area of Swindon town centre.
It is about 12 acres (49,000 m2) in size, with a lake of around 2 acres (8,100 m2), and contains a diverse range of ornamental trees and shrubs.
The park has a Garden of Remembrance, officially opened by Princess Elizabeth on 15 November 1950 and commemorates those who died in World War II.
‘It is difficult to believe that this town centre parkland oasis was once a brown field site. Queen’s Park is a twelve acre beauty spot with a Victorian industrial past, the site of builder Thomas Turner’s brick works – examples of his artistry stand close to the Drove Road entrance.
Today the former derelict claypit, once popular with zoologist Desmond Morris and his girlfriend Diana Dors, is an award winning park and garden.’ And: ‘In 2001 English Heritage awarded the garden a Grade II listing on the Register of Parks & Gardens. And it’s easy to see why.’
The photo of the gorilla is way better than mine for a start!
On the subject of the gorilla – also from Swindon History blogspot:
‘The long time resident gorilla took up his present position in 1994. The Borough bought the welded steel sculpture by Tom Gleeson following an exhibition in the Theatre Square in the mid-1980s. Today he looked particularly fetching with a flower tucked behind his ear by an admirer.’
Sculpture – Queen’s Park in Swindon
The sculpture is ‘Turtle Storm’ (1986) by Joseph Ingleby and is made of forged steel. Donated to Thamesdown Council as a gift from the Dufty family in 1995 and sited in Queens Park, Swindon, Wiltshire.
The work was originally purchased for Kelmscott Manor, Oxfordshire, the country home of William Morris, in 1989. In 1995 the decision was taken to limit artefacts at the house and grounds to those created in Morris’s lifetime (1834-96).
“And the secret garden bloomed and bloomed and every morning revealed new miracles.” Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret garden.
THE tradition of the Midnight Hunterand his headless hounds–always, in Cornwall, associated with Tregeagle–prevails everywhere. Whether the slice of mythology and folklore below is the inspiration for Swindon’s fantastical Wish Hounds sculpture I’ve no idea. But they’ve always intrigued me.
The hounds, created in 1994 by Lou Hamilton, have a menacing air about them even on a pleasant May Bank Holiday. It doesn’t take much of a leap of imagination to hear them howling Baskerville-like in the dusk and making mere mortals quake. Perhaps dusk is a better time to see them, to feel their hot breath, see their jowls heavy with saliva…
“And then he sought the dark-green lane, Whose willows mourn’d the faded year, Sighing (I heard the love-lorn swain), ‘Wishness! oh, wishness! walketh here.'” — The Wishful Swain of Devon. By POLWHELE.
Location Location Location – where the Wishhounds are
I found this information – and you can get the location of them here too on Geograph.org: ‘Wish-hounds also have other many other names, such as Yeth.
It seems the word wish is from a Sussex word meaning marsh. For hundreds of years there’s been reports of ghostly black dogs, usually with glowing red eyes. Such tales probably date back to the mists of time. It’s generally reckoned not to be a good thing to meet one. When this sculpture was first mooted, there were protests from some local Christians who objected to what they felt was pagan imagery and therefore, in their view, undesirable.’
The sculptor wrote a poem about them: the last two lines of which read: ‘They are the Guardians of the Earth’s secret; Wish-hounds of the Old Land.’
The Wish Hounds is a sculpture in three parts. 1. concrete cast lettering, 2. powder coated scrap metal and 3. earthworks in a circle of trees. As you can see from the pictures the lettering is becoming a bit grown over in places and the floodlighting is no longer working.
Swindon’s erstwhile Thamesdown council was the first in the country to adopt a percent for art policy. This policy encouraged developers, once their scheme was completed, to fund a piece of public art. This forward thinking and innovative scheme resulted in Swindon acquiring an unusual, if not unique, cultural landscape. A landscape that had public art scattered the length and breadth of the town. Amongst my personal favourites are The Great Blondinis, the West Swindon Sculpture walk. And the lonely cow chewing the cud up at the hospital. Though really I love them all.
Though some of the original ones are long gone, new ones have sprung up. And, even though some of them are now somewhat unloved they are no less interesting for all that. Before I started blogging about it all I’d never heard of the term ‘public art’ and really the closest I got to it was an old village pump, the Cenotaph and a redundant pit winding wheel..
May 26th – comment left by a listener:
“If I remember correctly, the Wish Hounds are on their long legs because they were designed to appear above the tree line for drivers on the M4. They used to look magnificent, leaping over the trees.
However, I’m not sure whether it was because of budgetary constraints or simply forgetting that trees grow but, they were gradually hidden by the ever growing trees. It’s a shame.
They used to provide a great introduction to Swindon art to drivers between J15 and J16″
We’re now 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.
The walk took us down Old Shaw Lane and right past Lower Shaw Farm – home of Swindon’s Literature festival amongst other things and close to the Nine Elms pub. It also took us via Shaw Village centre where, as it was a warm sunny evening, we stopped for ice-cream. Yet another reason why this walk took us hours!
Of course, should the fancy take you to do this walk during the day-time, The Village Inn at Shawwould make a good stopping point for lunch and/or a pint being approximately on the mid-way point of this walk.
So anyway, suitably refreshed with ice-cream and a sit-down we ventured on to the next sculpture on the list which is ‘Hey Diddle Diddle’.
It’s described thus: 1992 – Artist: Vega Bermejo. Material: Portland Stone. Project details: Commissioned by Thamesdown Borough Council through the Percent for Art Policy and sponsored by Clarke Holmes Ltd. This charming sculpture in a domestic setting depicts the popular nursery rhyme.’
Hey Diddle Diddle – the front view – the cat and the fiddle
Well, by this time we are getting closer to where I live but I still wasn’t making the connection. Talk about not really ‘seeing’ or knowing what is under your nose. It’s shameful. For twenty years I’ve been passing this thing on the 1A bus home from town and never realized. I’m not going to lie, I’ve had the thought ‘well, fancy having a huge stone cat in your front garden’and similar – because it’s quite literally in a front garden in The Prinnells (between Shaw/Middleaze and Grange Park) Oh dear. Though to be fair, as the bus swings by, the only bit of the sculpture you can see is the cat. But readers, this is so much more then a giant cat. Stop and take the time to examine it and you will see.
A nursery rhyme in sculpture form
As the descriptions says and the name implies, this sculpture is all about the well known nursery rhyme ‘Hey Diddle Diddle the cat and the fiddle…’ The roadside end of it is indeed the cat’s face but it’s only on closer inspection that you can see the fiddle. The other end has the cow’s face on it and the two sides depict the dish and the spoon, the moon and the little dog laughing to see such fun. I rather suspect he was laughing at me for not knowing what was under my nose. And quite right too.
So anyway Kim and I thoroughly examined it and took photographs. Like so many of these sculptures it’s in need of a bit of TLC. Just a brush and some warm water would piff it up no end. If it was in my front garden I think I might be doing that. And perhaps encouraging visitors and offering cream teas! 🙂 Though before I get too judgemental I ought to consider that there might be some sort of clause prohibiting that.
As with all the others so far, this is a really interesting and intriguing sculpture. I love the idea of it – representing a nursery rhyme in this sort of setting – as of course nursery rhymes and domesticity go together. But hey – don’t take my word for it – go and see it for yourself.
The moon, the little dog and the dish and the spoon.
