Saxon Drive - Tamworth – May 2018

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The monument to Aethelflaed stands as an important marker in the 21st century as we begin to recognise the uncelebrated women of our history. Aethelflaed is arguably one of the most important rulers in Medieval Britain, considered the first Queen of England this sculpture, the biggest figurative piece created in the UK in 2018 marks Tamworth as her capital.

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The piece commemorates 1100 years of her death and was the focal point for the celebrations attended by Prince Edward in May 2018. This Piece was designed in a series of engagements/ workshops and historical researches in which we identified the keystones of Tamworth’s cultural heritage, as well as this there was substantial Social Media Coverage reaching 10’s of thousands of local residents.

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This done it was possible to delve further into the major players of its past and find that Aethelflaed was the most inspiring of all its ex-residents. This design was then transferred into maquette, and sculpted in steel, galvanised, and installed as a fully 3-dimensional figurative sculpture nearly 10 metres tall the entire enterprise taking hundreds of hours of labor as well as design and logistics.

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The historic nature of the piece in addition to the scale of the work attracted national and international press with ITV, BBC, and many other media coverages.

We’re real proud of Our Aethel…

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"The statue is really stunning.Previously there was nothing to really welcome people into Tamworth – but now they will be greeted by a bold and striking image representing our rich heritage which will hopefully encourage visitors to explore this great town further. There’s nothing like this being unveiled like this in the region currently and we’ve already had lots of coverage for Our Aethel, including an excellent feature on ITV news, so the sculpture is already helping to put Tamworth on the map. We know the people of Tamworth will now take ‘Our Aethel’ into their hearts and that visitors to the town enjoy being greeted by her as they step off the train.” 

                             Mayor of Tamworth, Cllr John Chesworth