In 2010, Harlow in Essex became rebranded “Sculpture Town”. With its growing collection of sculptures scattered around the town, it is certainly worthy of its name. Among them are works by Henry Moore, Auguste Rodin and Barbara Hepworth, and to make it even more interesting the sculptures are not just located in the town centre but can be found in shopping precincts, housing estates, green spaces and the town park.
Some of the works are small, maybe set into a wall or against a building, while others are enormous pieces sited on grassy hillocks where they can’t fail to catch the eye of passing pedestrians or motorists. Perhaps out of all the sculptures, the Henry Moore piece Family Group is the most well-known.
When this sculpture was installed, it had a special significance for the town, representing as it did family stability. Harlow was one of the new towns commissioned under the New Towns Act 1946, which was initially intended to help families, especially those from London, to move from the war-torn city where they were often living in poor conditions. Sometimes, people were crowded into properties without electric lights or indoor sanitation.
Other new towns planned at the same time included Welwyn Garden City, Stevenage and Basildon. In fact, when I was a child, my family moved from a one-bedroom flat in London with no bathroom, and an outdoor lavatory shared by eight people, to a new house in Welwyn Garden City, surrounded by trees and flowers. Our lives were transformed.
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Denne historien er fra August 2022-utgaven av Best of British.
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THE FEW ON SCREEN
Steven Taylor looks at the Battle of Britain across film and TV
Table Service
Rachel Toy looks at the history of Ridgway Homemaker tableware
Hever Forever
Claire Saul studies the newly refurbished Boleyn Apartment at Hever Castle & Gardens - a castle fit for a queen
Shining a Light
Tony O’Neil tunes into the history of the last manned lightvessel
The Man With the Goldeneye
Film stills photographer Keith Hamshere describes how he came to enter the world of James Bond
THE ORIGINAL GOLDEN BALLS
lan Wheeler looks back on 70 years of Tiger comic and Roy of the Rovers, and chats to the man who edited and oversaw both titles
To Play the Queen
Chris Hallam looks back on the life of one of the UK’s best known lookalikes
POOLING RESOURCES
Martin Handley looks at what life was like after the Vernons Girls
POSTCARD FROM= SUSSEX
Bob Barton indulges in pleasure piers and fairground delights, as well as fulfilling a long-held ambition to visit the home of Rudyard Kipling
Oh, Miss Jones
Chris Hallam looks back at the origins and legacy of Rising Damp, ITV's most successful sitcom