Help us to find a home for Wenlock (From Worcester News)
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Help us to find a home for Wenlock
7:40am Monday 3rd September 2012 in News
LEGACY: Sherlock Wenlock is on the hunt for a new home.
A PIECE of Olympic legacy is coming to Malvern in the shape of a colourful one-of-a-kind statue of the event’s mascot.
The highly sought-after Wenlock statue is one of 84 individually created pieces of mascots Wenlock and Mandeville commissioned to celebrate this summer’s Olympic and Paralympic sporting spectacles.
They are currently being auctioned off to raise money for the Mayor’s Fund for London – a charity aiming to help disadvantaged children – and fetching up to £25,000 a time.
One of them, dubbed ‘Sherlock Wenlock’ and based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s iconic super sleuth, will be winging his way to Malvern after being snapped up by a sports-mad town businessman for the relative bargain of £6,500.
The purchaser, who has asked to remain anonymous, wants to place the two-metre tall statue somewhere prominent for the next couple of years so that children who were not able to get to London for the games have their own legacy of the event.
But to do this he needs to find a suitable venue and so the Worcester News has stepped in to help him find the prime position.
“It needs to be somewhere accessible and indoors and it also needs to be a big space because of the sheer size of the statue,” he said.
“I think it is something that will attract visitors in its own right. Hopefully, the children of Worcestershire will want to come and see it and have their photo taken.
“Hopefully, it will help inspire more children into sport and continue the Olympic legacy.”
Having spent much of the Olympics in London taking in the atmosphere, the statue’s new owner was keen to bring a little bit of that home with him.
“The whole thing was amazing and I thought that the legacy should not just be for London,” he said.
“My young son was completely intrigued by this particular statue and I thought that, with its literary significance as well, it would be a good one to bid for.”
The statue needs to be moved by mid-September, after the conclusion of the Paralympics.
Anyone interested in giving the statue a home should get in touch as soon as possible, by e-mailing ta@worcesternews.co.uk.
Comments(13)
Hwicce
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1:51pm Mon 3 Sep 12
uptonX
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2:18pm Mon 3 Sep 12
MrStJohns
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3:45pm Mon 3 Sep 12
Would it not be better to place the statue in a more open minded and progressive place.
The new library and history centre would seem a good setting where I sure it would be appreciated.
uptonX
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4:04pm Mon 3 Sep 12
It would be very wrong for it to be allowed to take up space in the library.
It has no connection with the town, seems to me like the sort of thing someone might have bought whilst drunk at a charity auction and now they are trying to get rid of it !
New Kid on the Block
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12:12pm Tue 4 Sep 12
RobertR
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1:55pm Tue 4 Sep 12
Hwicce
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2:03pm Tue 4 Sep 12
Karl Hunderson
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4:47pm Tue 4 Sep 12
Sleepless in Droitwich
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6:40pm Tue 4 Sep 12
Gillian1961
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4:15pm Wed 5 Sep 12
Maggie Would
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5:30pm Wed 5 Sep 12
Robot 3021
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12:32pm Thu 6 Sep 12
I'm not particularly enamoured with them, but they are instantly recognisable - there were a couple on the streets of Windsor when we visited on the way back from the Olympics, and our kids loved them.
It would be nice to sit him (?) on top of the Beacon or somewhere, it might give the children some sense of achievement when they got there to see it. And the moaners won't have to put up with its ghastly appearance as they joyously skip their way along on another wonderful day in their sparkling lives. Unless they are skipping up the hills of course. But I'm sure they aren't green enough, or have too many children (eurgh) on them, or something equally ghastly.
Ian_25 says...
12:10pm Mon 3 Sep 12
With the added advantage of bringing kids into the library who have never been there.