It is an unusual statue 66ft tall and and latest generally favourable comments and controversial pics from a local paper five years on can be read from the link below.I don't remember Verity oldmohawk from the last time I was Ilfracombe some years ago now, and I'm sure I would have remembered her! Is she a recent addition?
Just looked it up, apparently been there since 2012.
Quite controversial I would imagine, wonder what the locals think.
Hi Lyn,phil you know when they call out the weather for fishing areas....isnt varity one of them?...this has just come back to me from the days when i listened to world service on the radio
lyn
Brilliant statue. By Anthony Gormley? She looks pregnant, & is that an open ended spanner in her right hand?Hi Bob,
If you click on the link and run the webcam they switch views and eventually you will see Verity in all her glory.
Here she is standing there in all sorts of weather ...
View attachment 123415
oldmohawk
Basically a fill in for all interested. The sculptor was Damian Hirst, who has loaned it to the town for twenty years. In her right hand are the scales of Justice and she is standing on a pile of law books. There was a great deal of controversy and it was very much a split of the locals as to whether they liked it/wanted it/ needed it. She was tested in a wind tunnel before erection. She has brought a lot of visitors to the town which had been crumbling and dying since the closure of the railway line, another mistake in hindsight, it did not close until 1969, but in reality should have been recognised as a place that needed a good transport link. The bus services that replaced it were insufficient in numbers and timing and of course in summer with all the holiday makers, terrible traffic jams still occur..Ilfracombe to Barnstaple 12/13 miles, want the 10.45 train, leave Ilfracombe on a Saturday morning by at least 0830hrs, possibly earlier. Hirst opened up a wine bar along the road that leads to the Harbour, but this has recently closed, there is also a much debated scheme to build a large number of houses, currently in abeyance. The steam train trip to Ilfracombe from Birmingham was an interesting one, the train went from Snow Hill, was the Wolverhampton- Ilfracombe/Minehead (this one usually split at Taunton and ran early in the season and late at the end of season, otherwise the train were Wolverhampton - Ilfracombe, Wolverhampton- Minehead. From Taunton the ilfracombe train was hauled by a western 2-6-0 tender class taking up to two and a half hours to cover the 70plus miiles. It went into Barnstaple Victoria Road, where a Southern pilot was attached to the back and then was reversed into Barnstaple Junction, where the pilot detached and often at the height of summer a West Country class Southern engine was attached and hauled to Ilfracombe, where the station was high up on the east side of the town and quite a distance from the town.Brilliant statue. By Anthony Gormley? She looks pregnant, & is that an open ended spanner in her right hand?
That single track branch line has long since gone. Now the Tarka trail.View attachment 106697
Such a train pulling out of Barnstaple Junction to cross the Taw enroute to Ilfracombe.
In 1970, we had moved up to Braunton from Plymouth and for some reason decided in September to take the train to Barnstaple for a change...two weeks later it was gone, but the ride from Barnstaple to Exeter which still exists is probably (Dawlish coast line excepted) one of the prettiest in the country. Of all the express type preserved locomotives, the West Countries and Battle of Britain are probably the most of any one sort, running the rails of Great Britain, some are still in original 'spam can' form, but most are in rebuilt form. Braunto is owned by and runs on the West Somerset Railway, ironically it was very rarely seen in North Devon, being in the main a Nine Elms engine. On your break in Woolacombe, you must have chosen the right year to come, most summers we endure Devonshire liquid sunshine. Reverting to the theme Weather, the sun is shining here today.Sorry I have no info about the pic which was posted by devonjim, see link to his post. It was certainly that type of engine and I remember as it climbed out of Ilfracombe the wheels occasionally slipped with much engine noise. Steam on the branch ran until 1964 and the line finally closed in October 1970.
I went to Woolacombe almost every year from 1972 until 2003 and rarely had bad weather. It is such a nice place that it has its own thread hereIn 1970, we had moved up to Braunton from Plymouth and for some reason decided in September to take the train to Barnstaple for a change...two weeks later it was gone, but the ride from Barnstaple to Exeter which still exists is probably (Dawlish coast line excepted) one of the prettiest in the country. Of all the express type preserved locomotives, the West Countries and Battle of Britain are probably the most of any one sort, running the rails of Great Britain, some are still in original 'spam can' form, but most are in rebuilt form. Braunto is owned by and runs on the West Somerset Railway, ironically it was very rarely seen in North Devon, being in the main a Nine Elms engine. On your break in Woolacombe, you must have chosen the right year to come, most summers we endure Devonshire liquid sunshine. Reverting to the theme Weather, the sun is shining here today.
Bob