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Willow Man

2000 sculpturesArts in SomersetBasket weavingBuildings and structures in SedgemoorColossal statues in the United Kingdom
M5 motorwayOutdoor sculptures in EnglandSomerset LevelsUse British English from February 2012Wooden sculptures in the United Kingdom
The Willow Man geograph.org.uk 472863
The Willow Man geograph.org.uk 472863

Willow Man is a large outdoor sculpture by Serena de la Hey. It is in a field to the west of the M5 motorway, near Bridgwater in Somerset, South West England, near to the Bristol to Exeter railway line and south of junction 23 of the motorway. It stands 40 feet (12 m), with a 16-foot (5 m) arm span, and is made of black maul willow withies woven over a 3-tonne steel frame.Willow Man was commissioned by South West Arts, for the Year of the Artist, and the Moate family the land owner. The sculpture, which cost £15,000 (equivalent to about £27,000 in 2021), was unveiled in September 2000. It marks the millennium and celebrates the role of willow in the ecology and craft tradition of the Somerset Levels. The first sculpture was burnt down in an arson attack on 8 May 2001. The sculpture was rebuilt by the same artist in October 2001, and a 130-foot (40 m) circular moat was excavated around it as a precaution against further attacks.A notable landmark, it can be described as a somehow permanent Wicker man sculpture. The sculpture is popularly known as Withy Man, or Angel of the South in reference to Antony Gormley's sculpture Angel of the North. The name Angel of the South is now commonly used also as the unofficial title for a proposed colossal sculpture in Ebbsfleet. In September 2006, Willow Man received "a £20,000 hair cut". The sculptor Serena de la Hey said that she thought many local birds had been using the material for their nests. When the artist saw her sculpture she was "shocked to see the wear and tear". In 2018, an appeal to raise funds for the repair of the structure failed to meet its target. By 2021, the structure had further deteriorated with the head and arms having lost form.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Willow Man (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.15046 ° E -2.9812 °
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Willow Man

Belgravia Drive
TA6 4GJ
England, United Kingdom
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linkWikiData (Q2899308)
linkOpenStreetMap (1592995669)

The Willow Man geograph.org.uk 472863
The Willow Man geograph.org.uk 472863
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Nearby Places

Dunball
Dunball

Dunball is a small hamlet west of the village of Puriton and close to the town of Bridgwater, Somerset, England. Just north of Dunball is Down End which is the site of Down End Castle a motte-and-bailey castle, which has been designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Located on the A38, adjacent to Junction 23 of the M5 motorway, it hosts a wharf on the River Parrett, created in 1844 by Bridgwater coal merchants, which is the only part of the Port of Bridgwater still in commercial use today. Dunball also has a small industrial estate, built on the site of the Royal Ordnance Factory's hostel blocks; and a hotel. The wharf was formerly linked to the Bristol and Exeter Railway by a rail track which crossed the A38, on the right hand side of the hotel. The link was built in 1876 by coal merchants, and was originally operated as a horse-drawn tramway. It was removed during the Beeching Axe and Dunball also lost its railway station on 5 October 1964, which had opened in 1873. The wharf was used during World War II to bring Welsh coal to the nearby Royal Ordnance Factory, ROF Bridgwater. The wharf is now used for landing stone products, mainly marine sand and gravels dredged in the Bristol Channel. The King's Sedgemoor Drain drains into the River Parrett at Dunball, adjacent to the wharf, via a clyse. The clyse has been moved from its original location and it now obstructs the entrance to a small harbour adjacent to the wharf. During the Winter flooding of 2013–14 on the Somerset Levels high volume pumps from the Netherlands were installed at Dunball. River silt was dredged from the river in this locality in order to make Bath bricks, an early cleaning material.