The Cotswold Sculpture Park
02 July 2024
Tucked away in Somerford Keynes, in the Cotswolds is an amazing place to visit with over 200 original sculptures in a tranquil wooded garden area, some are even for sale, but all are amazing to see.
The last thing however, you might expect to see is a Morris Minor up a tree and Dragonflies made from old engine and exhaust pipes, or even the back end of a classic American school bus as a ticket office.
Tadd Hartland from the Cotswold Sculpture Park takes up the story. The sculptor is called David Hartland, he is the owner of the Cotswold Sculpture Park.
“The tree with the Morris Minor is called, “Carbon Neutral”. Carbon Neutral has become the logo of The Cotswold Sculpture Park. It’s a bit of a play on what trees absorb through their lives and making the tree out of some old car parts seemed to offer amazing possibilities.
Originally it was made for Glastonbury Festival in 2019 where it was placed near the blues stage In the “Silverhaze” field. There have been many photos of festival goers sitting in its shade on a hot day.
It returned there for three years before retiring to the Cotswold Sculpture Park where it was built by Park owner Dave Hartland with the help of friend, Mick Atack.
The first year it went to Glastonbury it had a large mirror ball in its crown and had around 1000 leaves along its branches. The leaves had been cut out of beer cans varying in colours mimicking the changing colours of natural leaves through the seasons. Sadly, these were never seen due to a Valley Wind well known by the Glastonbury crew ripping through the site a week before the festival opened. Though the sound of the leaves bending in the wind was incredible a few started to fall causing a health and safety call to be made, and every single one had to be removed before the festival opened.
When the tree arrived back at the park, Dave removed the mirror ball and added the Morris Minor, which had spent its latter years in a hedgerow and was unloved and neglected.
The original build took about 9 weeks and adding the Moggy took him a further 3 weeks.
The tree itself has been made in five sections which all slot together and the weight of it comes in at just under 5 tons. It hasn’t been apart for a few years, but the owner would happily try if anyone wanted to rent it out for an event or an occasion.